The Redeemed
by Around Here Somewhere
Summary: Ready. Set. Go. Set after the season 3 finale. Exactly too months after. Well, things are rough. Everyone who was already broken is even more so. I'm rating it M just because I don't want to censor it. Go at it. Redemption is for everyone, even those we hate. It's called good character development.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So, the idea is for this to last until the next season starts, so we'll see how this goes. First of all, you all know me by now, and know that I am an unkillable Olitz shipper, but I also recognize that no character should be all bad, or all good. It doesn't make for a very good story. There's going to be a lot of Mellie, and a lot of Jake – so…. Just take a breath and enjoy : )

The Redeemed

Chapter One

"Karen," Mellie said as she walked inot the living room, where Karen was sitting with Teddy, "Honey, can you take Teddy into the kitchen and have Marta feed him breakfast?"

"Sure, Mom," Karen said, picking her little brother up and bringing him with her out of the room.

Mellie took a deep breath as she looked out the window out at the Pacific Ocean. They had been in Santa Barbara for a two weeks, almost three. Karen was home for winter break, but had never gone back, and she wasn't about to make her. She hired her a tutor for the time being, and Teddy never knew the difference. And he never would, know that he had such a wonderful big brother. He wouldn't remember him. Mellie went to go up the stairs, hearing her foot hit each step and wondered why she was even bothering. She paused outside Jerry's shut door. She couldn't let it come in right now – she just had to keep moving.

She kept walking down to the very end of the hall, where she stopped again, and knocked on the door. There was no reason to knock, no one was going to answer. Because the man that would have ordinarily been inside had disappeared. She thought that maybe he would have rebounded if the circumstances had been different. Losing a child was the worst thing that could happen to a person – she could attest to that herself. But for the most part, he and Jerry had been close, he had been lucky. It was hard, but you kept moving. She had the idea that this had way more to do with a certain missing person at this point.

She understood, there wasn't a single thing that wasn't shattered for him within a period of a week. He found out about his father, he lost a child, and Olivia had disappeared. Literally, seemingly ceased to exist, and no one could find her. Originally, when she had heard about it – she thought it would be just what Fitz needed to take him out of his own head. But what he needed was Olivia to be there with him, and she was a poor substitute. He had ordered – very loudly – for someone to find her. But when they didn't – after a month, he just started to fall apart. Disintegrated. In front of the nation's eyes. That's why they had taken him away. Taken him to Santa Barbara and said it was stress.

"Good morning," Mellie strapped on a smile as she walked into the dark room bedroom.

Fitz was lying on the bed, staring despondently at the ceiling. She couldn't be sure that he had actually slept the night before. She had tried to drug him once or twice, slipped sleeping pills into his water. He ate and drank like a zombie, and he would only do it for Karen. She would sit with him, and feed him. After he realized what they had put in the water, he stopped drinking it. He would only accept sealed bottles now. She tried to ignore the fact that he didn't even seem to hear her and she ripped the curtains open to let in a little sunlight.

"There you go, Fitz," Mellie said as she walked back towards the center of the room, "How about you get up from bed today? Go sit in the garden?"

He mumbled slightly, and then rolled over.

"Fitz," Mellie said, shaking his shoulder, "You have to get up. You're going to get bed sores."

"No," Fitz said insistently, "Get out. Or stay. I don't care."

"Fitz –"

"At the very least, stop talking," Fitz mumbled into his pillow.

"You're at least a little more talkative than usual," Mellie replied.

"I can't-" Fitz said, looking up at the ceiling again, flipping the fan on and off, "I can't – He's – I had him in my arms and he's – she – she – "

Mellie took a deep breath and went to walk out of the room.

"Daddy," Karen said lightly as she walked into the room, leading Teddy by the hand, "How are you this morning?"

His daughter's voice was enough to make him look over – but then he looked away. He hadn't been in the mood to be around Teddy since they had arrived. Which was a red flag and a half – but she wasn't sure what she could do except make it so Teddy didn't know any better. So that when Fitz – if Fitz finally snapped out of it, Teddy wouldn't be scarred.

"Karen," Mellie said as she walked over and scooped the baby up, "Sit with your father? I'll have Marta bring up his breakfast in a minute."

"Ok," Karen replied, as Mellie brought Teddy out towards the hallway.

Hal was sitting in the hall – having been assigned to come with them. She gave him a little smile, and then set Teddy down in front of him.

"Can you watch him for a few minutes?" Mellie asked, and Hal nodded.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And call down to Marta – have her bring up Fitz's breakfast, then take Teddy to play outside."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Hal?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"Did he sleep at all last night?" She asked, and Hal nodded.

"He passed out from about four am to five am," Hal reported, and Mellie nodded.

"Who ever thought I'd be the one taking care of him?" Mellie asked, and Hal took a deep breath.

"Miss Pope – "

"Don't say that name," Mellie said, taking a deep breath and holding out her hand in a 'stop' signal.

"He was calling for her again last night."

"She's been gone two months," Mellie said, and Hal took a breath.

"Miss Pope would have taken care of him, if she could," He said, and Mellie looked surprised, "She wouldn't knowingly leave him like this. No matter what happened with them. Something's wrong. They – "

"They loved each other," Mellie replied, and Hall nodded.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"You think something happened to her? I mean, not that I care."

"There's just something wrong about this," Hal replied, picking Teddy up and putting him on his knee.

"Thanks, Hal – for everything," She said, and he nodded.

"Yes, Ma'am," He replied, and Mellie went back down the hall.

Marta passed going the other way, and Mellie barely acknowledged her as she walked by her. She started going back down the stairs, she made it to the ground level, and passed through the living room before getting to another door. She opened it up and headed down into the basement. The light switch was on the wall, at the bottom and she flipped it on. The basement was finished, and there was a desk in the corner. But more importantly, there was a corkboard on the wall. Olivia's picture was in the middle, her team's around it. Harrison was scratched out, he was off the grid – and almost as absent and missing as Olivia. She had narrowed it to Abby – the feisty red head that Olivia had sent in her place once or twice.

That was when her phone started to ring. Hal was right, of course – something was definitely wrong with the picture that was in front of them all. The Olivia she knew loved Fitz more than anything in the world – and obviously the opposite was true as well. She took a deep breath, and pulled her phone up.

"Andrew, what can I help you with?" Mellie answered.

Andrew was with Cyrus in the capital, helping to keep things under control while Fitz was wallowing. She took a deep breath.

"I wanted to check in," He replied simply, "How is he?"

"He's – worse," Mellie replied, "But don't worry – I have a plan."

"You always have a plan," Andrew replied, and she could hear him sigh, "I miss you."

Of course he missed her, because he was weak.

"I'll be in DC at the end of the week, I have to show my face if Fitz won't," Mellie replied.

"What's going on?" Andrew asked, "Jerry – "

"Andrew…"

"I'm sorry – I know you don't like to talk about it," He said, and Mellie sighed.

"I miss you, too," She told him.

It was true, in the sense that if she was with him it meant that her life was back to normal. That she had woken up from the hellish nightmare that had started months ago, and Olivia wasn't missing. She was adorable and pretty and had Fitz under her thumb, and tied up to a stake in the backyard. She would trade anything to have that life back, even without getting Jerry back. There was no getting her son back, she knew that. She had made peace with that a very long time ago. She knew that no amount of crying or wallowing would bring Jerry back. But it was sort of like Olivia had died, too – and if Olivia had died – it might have been better. At least then Fitz would have known what happened to her. At least then everyone would know, and Fitz could grow a pair and get out of bed.

"How's Karen?" He asked.

"Same."

"Shouldn't you be sending her back to school soon?" Andrew asked, "It might be good for her to go back to something normal."

"Her brother is dead, and her father is falling apart – almost literally," Mellie told him, "Nothing is normal. She went to school with Jerry – it was as much their home as with the family. I am not going to send her away until she asks me to. She's fourteen. She's not six – she knows what's happening."

"Ok," Andrew replied, and she could almost see him scratching his head, "I love you."

"Love you, too," Mellie replied, "I'll see you when I can."

She hung up the phone, and tore Abby's picture down off the board. She went over to the computer that was left on, and looked up an address – which she scribbled down the address so that she could slip it into her pocket as she shut it off, took the board down. She brought it over to the closet and stashed it in there before going back upstairs. The whole house felt so empty, but she knew where the people were. Marta was outback with Teddy, and Karen was upstairs sitting with her father – she hardly allowed herself to leave his side once she got there in the morning. She tried talking to him – like telling him about her and her friends was going to snap him out of it.

"Karen," Mellie popped her head into the room, and Karen looked up, "Can I talk to you out in the hallway, please?"

Karen stood up, and nodded. She leaned over him and kissed his forehead, whispering something as she followed her out of the room and into the hallway. Mellie took a deep breath.

"I have to go out," Mellie told her, and Karen nodded, "I'll be back tomorrow night. Are you ok to hold down the fort?"

She was carrying much more than the fort on her shoulders – it practically ran itself.

"Sure," Karen nodded.

"Marta's got Teddy, just make sure your father eats, ok?" Mellie asked, and Karen nodded.

"Ok, mom."

"And try and get outside, ok?" Mellie said, "You need a break. Go outside, and read a book. Your father isn't going anywhere. He's depressed, he's not terminal."

"Depression _can_ be terminal," Karen pointed out, and Mellie took a deep breath, "Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Is dad going to be ok?" Karen asked, and Mellie could see the tears starting to form in her eyes.

"C'mere," Mellie hugged her lightly, then let go quickly, she still wasn't used to that, "I am trying everything I can. Which is why I have to go."

"Does this have something to do with Olivia's disappearing?"

"Karen…"

"He talks sometimes," Karen replied, "Not to me, most of the time he doesn't really realize I'm there. He misses her, and Jerry. But he knows Jerry's dead. He's calling for her."

"They were friends," Mellie said, and Karen nodded.

"Right. He can't be president like this."

"We'll figure it out, honey," Mellie told her, "But I have to go now."

"Ok," Karen swallowed.

"You are so strong, Karen."

Within an hour, Mellie was at the airport within a few minutes. When Olivia disappeared, her team of friends that had meant so much to her had split off in different directions. It was like the shrapnel after a grenade went off. Harrison hadn't been seen in almost the same amount of time as Olivia – Huck was somewhere in DC, and Abby – Abby had gone to Montana. Mellie still couldn't quite make sense of why she would go there, but she at least knew where she was. And, if Olivia had sent her in her place to the White House, they had been close. If anyone had any idea where Olivia was, or what might have happened to her – it would be Abby. She got there too late to go and knock on the door – so she stayed in a hotel overnight, and got to her door in the morning.

It was a bigger house than she would have expected, given her history – and what Mellie could imagine Olivia could have paid her friends. She took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. She waited, looking up at the mansion – more than one thing was wrong with this picture. The yard was pristine, and everything was set up just so. She had a door knocker that Mellie had even refused to pay for when she went on her buying spree after Jerry –

"Hello?" Abby answered the door, and spotted her, and her agent behind her, "Oh – what're you doing here?"

"I was wondering if I could come inside," Mellie replied, and Abby shook her head.

"No, I don't think that'd be a good idea," Abby said, opening the door the rest of the way, and standing firmly in the way.

"The least you can do is hear what I want to say," Mellie replied, rolling her eyes, and Abby made a pitying face, and stepped aside, "Thanks. Daniel, you can wait out here."

The agent nodded, and Mellie stepped into a rather grand foyer, where Abby stepped in and closed the door.

"What do you want?" Abby asked, and Mellie could tell that there was still a whole lot of bad blood.

"I came to ask you if you know where your old boss is, or what might have happened to her," Mellie said, and Abby crossed her arms.

"I'll tell you what I told the cops," Abby said, rolling her eyes, "I don't know where she went. I don't know what happened. I talked to her on the phone the night before, and then the next morning she didn't show up."

"Right," Mellie said, "How'd you get the house?"

"What?"

"I've been looking into you, you don't work. You're alone. There's no money in your background," Mellie said, "You were married to Putney, who I don't blame you for leaving – but there's no… You see where I'm going with this?"

"I do," Abby said, swallowing, "But I don't know where she is."

"You don't?" Mellie said, "But you're in contact with her."

"No one has been in months," Abby insisted, and Mellie was trying to figure out what she didn't believe about it, what exactly she was lying about, "The cops concluded she had too many enemies. Someone finally got to her. For a while I thought it was you."

Mellie took a deep breath.

"But she funds your life, somehow," Mellie said, and Abby shrugged.

"She designated a certain amount of money to each of us before she disappeared," Abby replied, and Mellie narrowed her gaze.

"But you know where she is."

"I don't."

"I don't believe you," Mellie said, and Abby sighed.

"It's not like she left a note," Abby replied, and Mellie raised her eyebrows.

"But she's alive."

"I like to hope so."

"Cut the shit," Mellie replied, "I have already lost a child this season – I'm not about to let my kids lose their father as well as their brother. Where the hell is Olivia Pope?"

"She left," Abby said, in a way that told Mellie she was bitter about it, "She needed a new start."

"She needed a new start?" Mellie said couldn't believe her ears, "She's what? Sitting on a beach sipping a pina colada? The man she claims to love found out his marriage had been over for fifteen years, he lost his child, and she just takes off?"

"You don't get to say anything bad about her," Abby's first reaction was to come to her defense – interesting, "We all know Olivia had her issues. But you didn't exactly make life easy on her. You knew the whole time, and you guilted her – for loving a man that you stopped caring about years ago. Well, sorry – I guess you care a little – enough for the power, right?"

"That is enough," Mellie said, and Abby took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry you lost your son," Abby said, shaking her head, "I really am. But – "

"You don't know where she is?" Mellie said, knowing that she did, "If anyone does, it's you."

"You think Olivia told me anything? You think she trusted anyone? From what I understand, the only person she ever trusted with anything was Fitz. If anyone knows where she might be it's your husband. If he hasn't gone to find her – then that's on him."

"You don't know anything about my husband," Mellie replied, "I don't know anything about him – I – I need Olivia."

"I know where she is," Abby replied coldly, "But I'm not telling you. I believe she loves Fitz – but I don't think she can anymore."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hey guys :) thanks so much for the reviews…. I had to re-watch Vermont for my own feels… and then I just started re-watching the season – oh, bless you DVR… (seriously, rewatch the season, it's crazy how much stuff they hide in the story – or at least use later so it seems that way) Anyways… enjoy the chapter my loves :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Two

Cyrus took a breath as he walked into the national park that he used to walk around with Olivia. He was holding Ella's hand as he walked by the bench that he used to stop and chat with Liv on – where Rowan had threatened him – somewhat frequently. There was a patch of cement where Fitz, and the White House, took over his entire life – where he almost lost his life. Where he had laid on the cement until an ambulance had come to get him. He looked down at Ella, watching as she smiled in the sun, and they walked over to the little playground on the other side of the park. That was a very long time ago now, when he had run around with Olivia, who was gone now – and tried to run this country for the better. That was before James died, because of what they did. Before Olivia became a case on 'Missing Without a Trace' but he had a vague idea what had happened to her, and before Fitz had had his melt down.

"Daddy," Ella smiled as she was trying to climb up on the swing, and Cyrus went over to help her up.

"Hold on tight, honey, ok?" Cyrus said as he walked around the back and gently started to push her on the swing.

"Yup!" Ella chirped as he heard his cell phone ringing in his pocket.

His secret service agent was standing on the corner – and gave him a look. Cyrus took a breath reached into his pocket, seeing that it was Vice President calling him. He rolled his eyes a little bit, then stopped the swing as he pulled the phone out of his pocket. He offered her his hand, and then sent her over to the climbing gym and the slide. Cyrus relaxed his shoulders, rolled his eyes, and then put the phone to his ear.

"Cyrus Beene," He answered it, keeping and eye on Ella as he picked up the phone, pretending that he didn't know it was Andrew.

"Cy, I need you back at the White House," Andrew said, completely forgoing any sort of pleasantries.

"I'm with my daughter," Cyrus replied, trying to avoid being called back to the White House, "I'll be back in about an hour."

"I need you back here," Andrew said and Cyrus sighed.

"Andrew – and I mean no disrespect about this," He said, then took a deep breath, "But you are not my boss. I am the chief of staff to the President, not the vice president. Essentially, I am on equal footing with you. So, you demanding me back to work on my lunch break…"

"You always were good with words, Cy," Andrew retorted, quickly, "But you have to remember when someone is holding all the right cards. So, you will come back and help me out, or I will have to release the actual condition of the President. And offer to actually assume that role officially."

"That's what you never really understood about this business, is how to hold your cards without throwing them all down at once," Cyrus replied, "The art of the Poker Face, Andrew."

"The way I see it, I don't need one," Andrew replied.

"Until the President returns," Cyrus said as he called Ella back over with a wave.

"Losing a child is a terrible thing," Andrew replied, "But losing your son, and your lover in the same week? I don't know if anyone can really rebound from that. You know all he can imagine is Miss Pope lying mangled – probably raped – in a ditch somewhere, right? Do you think you would come out of that if that was the outcome for your husband?"

"I'll be there in as soon as I can. Subtly, the romance – it's really lost on you, huh?"

Cyrus hung up, not entirely sure why he was even doing as Andrew asked. If Fitz retired, that meant that he could, too. And God knew that he needed to – God knew that he was trying to regain his soul – for no other reason but for the fact that he no longer could sit in his office. He couldn't sit in the office from which he had decided to let a church full of innocent people explode in a ball of dust and flames in the name of winning an election. It was the office from which he had very nearly allowed Charlie to murder his husband that he would now do anything in the world to have back. The office that he had sold his soul to anyone who wanted it in the name of power, and politics. In the name of compromising everything else in his life. But it was also an office that he loved more than anything else that he had already thought of. And that was what disturbed him the most.

"Anna," Cyrus called over Ella's nanny over and gave Ella a little pat on the head as he headed off back to work.

Andrew's words about what Olivia's fate might have been since she disappeared echoed through his head as he got back into a car to head to the White House. He shut his eyes, and forced himself not to think about it. Not to think about the bright, smart, young woman that he had corrupted. That he had managed to drag in to rigging a national election, introduced her to a man that would end up destroying her from the inside out, and forced her ot think that they couldn't be happy. He remembered, sitting in the backseat the day that he sat underneath Alexander Hamilton and told Olivia that 'Some men weren't meant to be happy, that some men were meant to be great'.

Where the hell had he come up with that – pulled it right out of his ass, shined it up and served it right out on a patter, and she ate it up. What kind of monster didn't show their underbelly to their own friends? What kind of selfishness had come over him? To force his friends – probably the only two people on the planet who ever loved him, and loved him unconditionally. He let them be ripped to shreds. And not only did he let them ne ripped to shreds, he had helped. He had taken them into his own hands and fed their lives through the shredder. And then, he had bagged up the pieces and had them take it to the trash themselves. Now Fitz was lying in bed, refusing to get up, or walking around like a zombie, refusing to speak. Falling apart at the podium, literally having to use it as a support as he collapsed onto it. Until Tom could help him off. Tom. When he had fallen apart, Fitz had come and got him away from the cameras himself. Fitz falls apart, and Cyrus let Tom handle it.

But it couldn't be him, that was why he was on his way back to the White House. If he let this all fall apart, if he let Fitz fade into oblivion, then somehow he would have lost. Everything that he was working for would be out the window, but it was more than that. He would have officially lost his best friend, he would have officially lost a woman that he might have introduced to people as his daughter at certain points in time. Them on top of James, he couldn't take that – he couldn't deal with the knowledge that Olivia was gone – and that Fitz was essentially gone, too.

"Andrew," Cyrus waltzed unceremoniously into the Oval Office, and sat down on the couch – ignoring that he had interrupted a meeting that Andrew was having with his own chief of staff.

"Cyrus, glad you could make it," Andrew said as he got up from behind the desk, and Cyrus cringed.

"What do you want?" Cyrus asked, and Andrew shrugged his shoulders.

"I want our friend back in this White House," Andrew replied, and Cyrus arched an eyebrow – not really believing him, "I want you to help me figure out how."

"No," Cyrus replied.

"You don't want your guy back into the White House?" Andrew said quite like he couldn't believe his ears as he walked over and sat down in across the coffee table from him.

"A lot of things have changed in the past two months," Cyrus said, taking a deep breath, "I think it'll be best if he gets himself together enough to resign himself."

"I know that a lot has happened," Andrew said, and Cyrus chuckled as Andrew tried to appeal to his humanity –he had no humanity – he should know that by now, "I know that you're husband, lil Jerry, and I know that Olivia was a – "

"Don't you dare talk about her," Cyrus said, getinng up and walking towards the desk, because he couldn't stand to look at him, "Don't talk about her – don't even say her name like you knew her. You were a parasite on her side, and you've been a parasite on the side of this whole deal since the moment you signed on with us. Olivia Pope is the best thing that ever happened to this republic. She – she is what kept us all in line. She's the person that ran things, and that is why Fitz fell in love with her. She was way out of his league – and to be honest she was way out of everyone's league. You – you're not even worthy enough to say her name. So, enough – Andrew."

"Cyrus, you're getting ahead of yourself."

"I'm- I'm," Cyrus sputtered, "I'm telling you how it is, Mr. Vice President. You want the presidency, you can have it. But then again, I don't think you do."

"I – have to go," Cyrus replied.

"If we find her…"

"I don't think you're going to," Cyrus told him, getting up, "Because if she is dead, it's not going to matter. And if she's not – no one's going to be able to find her until she wants to be found. Fitz is a broken guy – and I don't think that anything in the world can fix him except for if we find Olivia alive, and completely unscathed. Do you know how I know that? Because nothing in this world can fix me, even though I know what happened to James. I know that he's actually physically at rest, and you know what? It's not that damn comforting. Have you ever loved someone, Mr. Vice President? I'm not talking middle school, I passed her a note in study hall – I mean actually, fully loved someone? So much you can feel it in your gut, and there's no escape?"

"I have," Andrew replied and Cyrus narrowed his gaze.

"Have you? Have you ever loved anyone, in any capacity?" Cyrus replied, "So much that you would do absolutely anything in your power, and even above your capacity to make sure that that one person is happy? To the point where you have fire that completely takes you can't think. You can't breathe without thinking about them, and – the things that you do – nothing else matters. Because if you ever even felt half of that for anyone you would never even wish something like this – and YOU WOULD NEVER EVEN SUGGEST THAT OLIVIA POPE IS LYING IN A DITCH. Not even to me, she is like a child to me. And if you cared about Fitz at all – you would shut the hell up and run the country until he figures out what the hell he is going to do. And how he is going to be able live."

Cyrus got up from where he was leaning on the desk, and headed out the door and out past Lauren who was sitting at her desk. Cyrus nodded to her lightly, and was trying to make his way to his own office, when she stood up, and got in his way.

"Lauren, I do not have time – "

"Mr. Beene…"

"Lauren…"

"What's going on? Just give me something to go on."

"Lauren, go back and sit at your desk," Cyrus said, taking a deep breath and bringing back the company line, "The President has had a very traumatic few months. He has tried to stay strong for far too long, and it was bound to catch up with him eventually. He's only human. Now, go back to your desk – and please let me know if his royal highness the Vice President is about to do anything so incredibly stupid that I can't fix it later."

"Sure thing, Mr. Beene," She said, she seemed a little disheartened, but did as she was told.

That's why he had always liked Lauren. If there was anything he could do about it, there would never be a single thing that would happen to her. That was what good people did, right? They wished good on other good people – people who seemed to genuinely care? Did anyone actually genuinely care? About anything? He didn't know anymore as he walked into his office, and he could almost feel the weight crushing down on him. He cared. He cared about Fitz, and he cared about Olivia – he had cared about James, it was just that he was too terrified to allow himself it. And he couldn't let Fitz lay there in bed all day, shuffling around in old clothes. For better or worse, he had to find Olivia. But where was she? Where- No one knew where she had gone. No one even –

Rowan. Rowan. Her father, he knew everything he would have known exactly where his own daughter would have gone to. He would have found her, because after all – even the Devil loves his own kids. Cyrus knew from experience, he would never rest, he wouldn't ever stop if something had happened to Ella. If Ella had just fallen off the face of the earth without a note or a word edgewise – he would find her. He got up from his desk.

"Sir, where are we headed?" Tom met him outside the door, and Cyrus took a deep breath.

"Just have a car brought around," Cyrus told him, "Cheap looking, something that doesn't scream that the White House chief of Staff is going out."

"Yes, Sir," Tom replied, and Cyrus nodded as he walked with him.

Cyrus didn't know how he didn't think of it sooner, talking was not a thing as he sat on the side of the road – waiting for Tom to bring the car around. He had been more than surprised when Tom had opted out of going to Santa Barbara with the First Family. He had chosen to stay behind, with the White House. Cyrus thought that maybe it was due to his closeness with the First Family. It wasn't very often that the secret service agents got that close with the families.

"Where are we headed, sir?" Tom asked as Cyrus climbed into the backseat.

"The Smithsonian, please," Cyrus told him, and Tom looked at him in the rearview mirror – maybe a little strangely.

"Anywhere specific?"

"The head curator's office," Cyrus nearly barked, and Tom took off form the House.

Cyrus started going over in his head what he might be able to say to Rowan to get him to speak up. He had the feeling that he might speak up, but no one ever knew what to expect with Rowan. Tom brought the car to a stop outside the main office, and Cyrus popped out of the car to head up the steps. Tom went to follow him, and Cyrus motioned for him to stop.

"I'm afraid I have to insist, Sir," Tom replied, and Cyrus nodded, "The security's a little not as it should be at the moment."

"Fine, but you stay outside of his office," Cyrus spat, and Tom nodded.

"Sure."

Cyrus got lost once or twice on the way to his office, but eventually found it. Just as Rowan was pulling on his coat as if he was headed home – not a worry in the world. Cyrus paused for a second, and then pushed through the door.

"Cyrus Beene," Rowan cackled as he walked in, pausing with his keys in his hand, "What do I owe the pleasure?"

"You…. Know why I'm here," Cyrus said, and Rowan nodded.

"Tom, c'mon in here, please?"

"Tom, stay out there," Cyrus said, and Rowan shook his head – Tom walked into the room.

"Tom?" Cyrus asked, and Tom ignored him.

"Yes, sir, Command?" Tom stated it like a robot, and Cyrus knew that Rowan was watching the horror contort on his face.

"That's all I need, Tom," Rowan said, "You can wait for Mr. Beene in the car – so that you can bring him back to where he belongs."

"Where is she?" Cyrus asked him and Rowan gave him a look.

"I'm sorry?" Rowan asked.

"Olivia. Where is she?"

"I always took you as a smart man," Rowan said, taking a deep breath, "Which is why I'm still stunned that it took you this long before realizing that I know everything."

"You know where she is – all this time," Cyrus said and Rowan just looked at him, almost a complete blank stare, "You – you hide her from the people who love her. Who she loved – "

"Mr. Beene, you assume that my daughter is dead," He stopped him, pausing for a half-second, "I assure you that the people that I love do not die until I say that it is their time."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hello, All… Enjoy the fun! Sorta… thanks for the support, your notes all pretty much make my day :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Three

"Is there anything else I can get for you, sir?" The girl behind the counter said as she handed Jake his change, and he shook his head.

"No, thanks," Jake replied, picking his coffee cup back up and was about to head away from the little breakfast place.

"American," She recognized his accent, and he nodded.

"I've always wanted to get over there," She said, and Jake gave her a little smile, "That's where my mom went with her new husband."

"Well, I hope you get there," Jake told her, tipping his head to her as he picked up his muffin and headed back out onto the busy London street.

They had been living in London for the past two months, and he still wasn't entirely acclimated to where they were. They were sharing a flat not too far from either of their new jobs, which was nice – but he was the newest officer, or whatever they called their police officers over here. 'Bobbies' he was pretty sure was the colloquial term, but it didn't really matter because the job sucked. Of course, it was a lot better than being under the thumb of B613, but all he could do was be bored. He was the new guy, so he got all the shitty shifts. He had three nights a week where he was working overnight, and the other four he was working during the very early morning. Never mind the fact that he was entirely bored out of his mind. He leaned back on a bench in one of the squares, where Olivia usually met him before she went to work.

"Good morning," She said as she walked up, looking as fabulous as ever – but there was something wrong.

There had been something wrong since they left DC. He had thought that it was going to be good, a nice change for both of them. That he just needed to separate her from everything that was back there. If they both just got away, but no one got away from her father alive, did they? He knew that going in, and he thought this was a loop hole – he thought that maybe they could figure out a way to be happy. That maybe if she was away from him long enough – she would get over him, and get over herself. Stop letting herself be the victim.

"What's the on docket for today at work?" Jake asked her, and she shrugged.

"More old estate wills," She replied, rolling her eyes, and Jake nodded.

"Well at least you're just as bored out of your mind as I am," He replied, trying to turn it into a light-hearted joke – which failed.

"Well, I'll see you when I get home," She said, barely even having a human connection as she got up and headed out of the park.

London was a beautiful city, and honestly much preferable to wherever else Rowan might have thought to send their plane. Honestly, he thought that maybe it had something to do with the fact that anywhere else would be even more boring to them. To send them somewhere tropical to sell fruity drinks, or to someplace other than a large city would have just been hazardous to their physical health. Though, he was pretty sure this set up in London would be wearing on them even more than it was now even within a couple of months. Maybe once he made detective it would be better. He wasn't sure why Rowan didn't just set it up that way – but he wasn't really about to complain – or make contact with him – if he could avoid it.

His eyes were closing even with the coffee as he was walking up to his and Liv's flat. It was a two bedroom one, right in the heart of the city, so that they never had to be anywhere that wasn't within walking or Tube distance. It was a nice little place, and all of Olivia's stuff from her old apartment worked perfectly in it. He took a deep breath, and sat down on the couch. They were sharing her bed in the master bedroom, the other room used as a study. That way when the landlord or anyone came by, it wasn't suspicious. He leaned back on the couch, and let his tired eyes close for a little while.

He was walking down the street back in DC, he wasn't sure how he knew where he was – but he did. He could feel the sun beating down on the side of his face. For some reason as soon as he realized that he was walking in DC, he was outside the White House, walking along the fence, and looking up at the mansion. He stopped as Tom appeared on the grass, so he backtracked and hid himself behind a pillar in the fence. But it didn't matter because even though Tom had seen him, he wasn't what he was looking for. Jake stepped back out and saw a wooden stake in the ground, and Fitz was tied to it. Dirty, almost like a prisoner of war, tied to stake – and Rowan was standing up on a balcony.

Jake turned around, so he didn't have to watch and was faced with a wall of people. A wall of America's people all in tents, and in the shadow of the mansion. They were starving, decrepit, and some of them were even dead, lying in the street. He felt a weight in his hand, and he turned to see Olivia holding his hand next to him. But her eyes were glued to Fitz, where he was tied to the stake – but she wasn't saying anything. She stood there, frozen, and watching – not sure how she was going to react. He knew that it was killing her, she couldn't take her eyes off of him.

"I'm sure," She breathed, and he could hear her heart breaking in her voice.

"Olivia…"

"It's my fault, it'll be better for him if I go."

"Livy," Fitz had seen her, and Olivia led him away from the whole scene.

"Jake," He jerked awake as Olivia tapped him on the shoulder, "Did you sleep there all day? The bed is in the other room."

"Yeah, I just kind of passed out," He said and she nodded as she went to the kitchen and poured two glasses of wine, she handed him one as she sat down next to him.

"You were having a nightmare again, I could hear you mumbling and yelling in your sleep," Olivia said, as she started in on her first glass of wine – she was now up to a usual two or three.

"Yeah," Jake replied, barely back into reality as he looked at his wine glass, "Here, you can have this one for your second. I'm having a beer."

He set it down on the coffee table in front of her, and walked over to the fridge, pulling out two beers instead of one, and going back to sit next to her on the couch.

"Oh, I forgot you…"

"Don't worry about it," Jake waved it off as he sat back down.

She always forgot that he didn't like wine. Like every day she was wishing that somehow he had magically turned into Fitz. That he would be waiting for her in a cute little collared sweater, his hair would be a tangled web of curls. That somehow his brown eyes would manage to turn themselves ice blue, and he would slim down about twenty pounds. Her brain was telling her that maybe just maybe if she started feeding him wine, and trying to talk to him about classy matters, and try to slowly turn him into something that he wasn't. That somehow she would be able to convince herself that she had run away with Fitz, not him. And that she was coming home to the curly haired, blue eyed smile that loved wine, and just sitting with her there in silence. That she would come home to her blue eyed sweetheart instead of him, the green eyed monster.

He could see out of the corner of his eye that she was starting to get upset, so she flipped the TV on, and Jake let her do it. She finished her first glass as he had just downed his second beer, but he didn't want to get up for more. He did have to wake up in the morning, fairly early. He was watching some dumb movie that had come out in the nineties – but for some strange reason it somehow just reminded him of home. He took a deep breath, willing more alcohol to join his bloodstream, but it seemed that his brain wouldn't allow it. Olivia drank down her second glass within minutes, and then excused herself very quietly to go to bed.

She was starting to feel guilty, he knew it even though she hadn't said anything. He wasn't even sure if she had let herself admit it. She was probably still telling herself that it was for the best – what she did. That she had to live in exile, and everything would get better, for everyone. She couldn't fix everything for the people that she loved, so why even burden them with her existence? He wanted so many times to convince her that it wasn't like that – but had inevitably kept his mouth shut. She would eventually realize that she had made a mistake, and she would want to go back. Right now, she was in exile voluntarily, that's how they could be so out in the open. When she decided to go home – that's when the trouble would start. He wondered slightly if she would feel any better knowing that she actually had had no choice in the matter – that her father had managed to make it happen. And if she hadn't agreed to it out of her own will – Jake shuttered as he even let the thought cross his mind.

He stood up and grabbed both of Olivia's glasses, taking them into the kitchen to wash them out for her. The deal when he had gotten out of the hole had seemed so easy, so – simple. Rowan had realized that Olivia would never be able to get rid of Fitz on her own – and he did not, under any circumstances want Olivia to end up with Fitz. What had saved him from the hole was Olivia's interest in him, the fact that she was so determined to get him out of the Hole. Out of B613. There was no 'out' of B613, so this had seemed like a reliable option. He was to play nice with her, become her friend and gain her trust. Rowan -had told him that he would do the rest – he would make it so that she would get on that plane, his only job was to make sure that he could get on it with her. So that he could keep her away even once she realized it was a mistake. And honestly, for a while Jake thought he was helping her.

He was helping her get away from a man who was only going to pull her down from what she could be. Just because he agreed to the deal didn't mean that he didn't care for her – that he didn't love her. Because he did. Well, he loved her as much as he thought he might ever be able to love someone. Just like being her guard and pretending he wasn't in B613 anymore was almost like not being in B613 anymore. He had hope that he could make her fall in love with him too, that they would ride off into the sunset, and forget that they were in exile. That they had run away from the man that she really loved. But he was learning more and more about love every day, and he wasn't really liking what he was learning. Like how you couldn't physically make someone love you, and as long as they loved someone else, even if you had them – even if you were pretending to be married in a foreign country – you really had nothing.

The television screen flipped to an old clip of the American President. The British late night comedy show was on rerun, but he could see them making fun of something that he had said. It didn't really matter what the joke was – because he could see Olivia standing in the background. He could see her smile before he laughed – like even when she had helped him write the speech he had thought it was funny. The way that she looked at him, and when he turned and spotted her – and smiled –

He flung one of his empty beer bottles across the room in anger – and it hit the middle of the television screen and it made a little death noise as the screen cracked. The screen went black, the crack spidering as the bottle rolled off the table the TV had been resting on. He swore almost silently to himself, and then put Olivia's wine glasses to dry on the counter before creeping out into the living room. He was listening for any sign that Olivia had heard the bottle, but there seemed to be none. He looked over at the clock – it was too late to even attempt to go and get a new one. He went over and unplugged it, there was no way he could just leave it there to see in the morning.

He lifted the TV off the little table, and carried it toward the door. Then it was onto the sidewalk and down a little ways towards the dumpster that had a pick up first thing in the morning. He would stop on his way home in the afternoon, and Liv would have a TV back in her living room by the time she got home from work. He wasn't going to bother to tell her until she asked about it in the morning – maybe she wouldn't even notice.

He sighed as he turned around – she wasn't noticing much lately. She definitely was not the same person anymore. She wasn't the bright spot in everyone's day, the smart, and witty woman that he and his best friend had both fallen in love with. She wasn't the same person, she was broken – just like the rest of them. That's what had made her so great – the fact that she was so obviously broken, and yet she was working so hard to fix everyone else. It gave her a spark, a warmness – and now? Now she was just – sad. And Jake had no idea what to do about it. Fitz would have known – the perfect, smug, little ass-hat.

"Captain Ballard," He heard a cold voice to his left, and down an alley. It was one that he knew all to well.

"Sir," Jake replied, ducking into the ally and coming face to face with Rowan, "I didn't know that you were coming tonight."

"I wanted to stop by," He replied, "But I had to make sure that you hadn't already gone to bed. Would hate to wake her."

"She went to bed an hour ago," Jake informed him, and Rowan nodded, "She's sad, sir."

"What do you mean, she's sad?" Rowan asked as they started to walk down the road a ways, down near the Thames.

"She's – I think she's starting to think twice about her decision to leave, sir," Jake replied as they crossed the road, and could see the lights of the London Eye.

"Well that's why you're here, no?" Rowan retorted as they walked past a club that was just opening up for the night, "Convince her that you can make her happier than he could. Convince her that she made the right decision, running away with you. Charm her."

"I think it would be a lot easier if Fitz was in a little better shape," Jake commented as they crossed another road, and then were standing on a bridge – they could see Big Ben in the background – and they stared at that instead of each other.

"I'm working on it," Rowan replied, "Don't worry about the president. He will be back in the White House running the country and pretending that she never existed within a month. It's your job to just keep her away from him until then. Until she can think that he's forgotten about her. That it is in fact better that she left – that he no longer cares. That all the lies he fed her about true love and soul mates were in fact lies."

"That's going to be tough to do," Jake told him, "She knows that he led the search for her. She saw him go on and ask everyone to look for her." Le about

"The brain is fickle in the things that it remembers," Rowan replied, "If she sees him happy two, maybe three times – she will think that he doesn't care anymore. Captain Ballard, you know very little about women…"

"I have had other things on my plate," Jake replied as they started walking back, "When do you go back?"

"I leave in the morning," Rowan told him, "I thought I was going to have to catch you on your way to work."

"I see," Jake nodded as they then walked in silence back to his door.

Rowan kept walking as if they hadn't even met each other, and Jake went up the steps and into the apartment. He went over and picked up the bottle, throwing it into the recycling before he stretched, and headed towards the bedroom. The lights were already off – so he just stripped down to his boxers and made his way over to the edge of the bed, pulling down the sheets, and crawling in on 'his side'. As soon as his head hit the pillow – he saw Olivia's eyes open. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he could see that her face was just a little puffy – like she had been crying. He decided to pretend not to see it, and rolled over onto his side.

"Jake," She whispered in the dark, running her hand over his shoulder blade lightly.

"What?" He murmured as he rolled over onto his back – and then he recognized the look in her eyes – maybe a little too well, "I'm tired tonight, Olivia. Can I get a rain-check?"

"Sure," She whispered, and Jake stared up at the ceiling.

It was exciting the first time it had happened – the fact that she might have actually wanted him. But she didn't. She was a mess – and he wasn't even second best. There was no second to the way that she felt about Fitz. There was just sadness, and sex to make up for it. He couldn't do it anymore – it just felt dirty. All of it just felt dirty.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: So, this is probably the chapter you guys have been looking forward to the most: Fitz. Then It's Olivia, and then we go back to Mellie. Hope you guys like this whole cycling thing – it's new for me not to be just switching from Olivia and Fitz – because usually it's just them that I like to focus on… I'm rambling… Enjoy :) and let me know how you like the chapter!

The Redeemed

Chapter Four

Fitz woke up and his head was off at a weird angle. Someone had stuffed a pillow up under his head, and he let his eyes creek open. It was early, the blinds hadn't been opened yet. And his bed was too comfortable. All he wanted to do was lay flat on his stomach. He pushed himself up on his hands just enough to throw all the pillows on the bed across the room and onto the floor. Then he fell, face first back onto the mattress as he threw the covers off of himself, lying face first and spread eagle on the bed. He swallowed, looking over at the alarm clock on the bedside table – it was almost six'o'clock. No one in the house would be up for a couple more hours - so he pulled himself up.

He looked down at the t-shirt and old basketball shorts that he had been wearing a while – but he didn't even care. He rubbed his eyes and took a deep yawn as he shuffled out to the hallway. As soon as he stepped outside the door, Hal stood at attention, like he had been sleeping and Fitz motioned for him to sit back down. It wasn't a big deal, nothing was. He walked down the stairs slowly, thinking that he might miss a step if he tried to even think about anything else. Even looking straight down he missed one of the steps, and nearly fell down the rest of the stair case – but instead just fell right on his ass.

He blinked, but didn't say a word as he reached over for the railing and pulled himself back up. He hobbled the rest of the way down the stairs – his ankle felt funny – like something was wrong with it, but he just kept walking. He went to the back sliding doors and went to open it up.

"It's pretty cold out there, Sir," Hal told him, appearing at his side with his coat, the big green one that he usually only used for hunting.

"I don't need it."

"Sir, I insist," Hal told him, throwing it over his shoulders, "You fell on the stairs – are you ok?"

"Do I look ok?" Fitz retorted, not able to summon enough energy to shrug off the coat.

"No," Hal replied as Fitz struggled slightly, pulling the door open.

"There's your answer."

He stepped outside, and was numb pretty quickly from the wind and the cold that was coming off the water and up the cliffs. He staggered across the lawn to the corner of the yard – tripping over one of Teddy's toys but still managing to keep his balance. He got over to the wood pile - which had been left out and a stump that was where he generally would chop wood. He looked over at the axe lying on the ground. That's what he had done for the first few days that they were there. Something inside of him had forced him to try and get out some aggression. Now, he could care less and he just sat on the stump, leaning over his knees as he looked out off the cliff.

He was sitting where Olivia had stood – where they had talked and he had thrown his hissy fit. His fit where he told her that he was going to be President, that it was important enough for him to cry about. That he wanted to prove his dead – and rapist father wrong. Why the hell had he ever thought he had anything to prove over his father – he had no idea. It wasn't important to prove to his father that he was a better man. It had never mattered. Being a better man meant that he was going to do right by the people that he loved. That meant Olivia – and that meant changing his priories when he still had the time. He had had so many exit doors, and he had strolled by each one – every time his happy ending with Livy got further away and more murky to the naked eye. Until now – and now she was gone.

He looked out over the cliffs, because it was an option that he had been thinking about. He had been thinking about it a lot since Mellie had had a couple agents rotate his bed so that he was at least looking out the window. That was when he remembered how beautiful the view was – how the cliffs dropped off right into the ocean, but not so easily that he would fall right into the water. He would bounce, or at least scrape against the side. He would be dead before he actually hit the water.

But he couldn't, and he knew why because he could hear Teddy crying for Marta, and he knew that Karen would be up soon too. They deserved better than that – they deserved better than him. But he was what they had, and he would get out of this eventually, right? Besides, what if Olivia was out there somewhere? Even if she wasn't – he knew the exact face she would give him – the way she would scream at him if she knew he had even thought of it. He swallowed, the whole house would be up soon – Teddy had calmed down. It wasn't something that he could seriously consider – he was too much of a coward for that anyway. No matter what happened, he was too much of a wuss – and everyone knew it. Hal even knew it, but he would stop him even if he tried anyway.

He got up and hobbled back into the house, Hal watching him carefully as he walked. He knew that the worst thing about it would be heating up again once he got back inside. By the time he had snuck back into his room, he was feeling a lot more pain in his ankle, but he didn't really care as he went to open both of the windows in the room, and then went to lay down on the bed, returning to his cheek to mattress cover position. His coat was still on, but the cool air was now flowing right into it. It was comforting to him to feel his body cooling down again. He fell asleep somewhere between this time and the time when Karen edged into the room.

Because he woke up and there was something wrapped tight around his ankle. He assumed that it was Tom's doing, and reached down and tore it off as best that he could – as quickly as possible.

"Dad! It's freezing in here," Karen scolded him, crossing her arms as she went over to close the windows, and then went to the thermostat, presumably turning up the heat, "What the hell are you – where'd you get your coat?"

"Hal," Fitz replied briefly as he rolled over, just in time for Karen to through what was left of the sheets on the bed over him, "Where's your mother?"

"Hal threw a coat on you and didn't shut the windows?" Karen questioned as she sat down next to the bed, "Mom went to DC. Dad – you can't pull this shit."

Fitz gave her a slight side glance.

"Dad, I get it," Karen continued, "You lost Jerry, and you lost Olivia, mom's cheating on you – you're depressed. It's to be expected. But you can't do stupid stuff like leaving the windows open in the middle of winter. Even if this is Californi?"a. Your immune system is down because you're not on your game. If you end up with something worse – "

"When did you turn into a psychologist?" Fitz retorted.

"I've been doing a lot of googling," Karen replied and Fitz blinked lightly, "And I put it together."

"What?"

"You and Olivia," Karen replied, and Fitz rolled over, "Why did you even care that mom was –It doesn't matter. You had to bury your son, and you don't even know where Olivia is. But it's Olivia that you're calling for in your sleep."

"It doesn't matter," Fitz said, and Karen hit the side of his bed before climbing up and sitting on the edge of it.

"Of course it does, Dad," She replied, and Fitz jumped a little bit, "Because you love Olivia. You love her more than you loved Jerry – more than you loved any of us."

"No," Fitz replied, and Karen raised her eyebrows, "I know where Jerry is. He's - he's gone, and there's nothing that can bring him back. Which is hard enough to grasp, but Olivia – "

His voice cracked slightly, so he took a minute before continuing. It had been a long time since he had talked so much.

"…Olivia - I don't know where she is," Fitz said, and Karen nodded, "That's – "

"That's worse," Karen replied, and Fitz took a deep breath.

"It's like when your dog ran away, remember when we were at the Governor's mansion?" He asked her, and she nodded.

"We never heard anything about him," Karen replied, "I didn't know if someone had taken her in or if she was hungry, or – oh. Not knowing_ is_ worse."

"You don't want to give up hope by starting to grieve," Fitz told her, "But at the same time, your brain is just reeling with all the things that could have happened."

"Way worse."

"And I left the gate open," Fitz said, and Karen sat bolt upright, "No. Not literally – It's a metaphor, Kare."

"So you mean you left the door open for something to happen to her?" Karen deducted, and Fitz nodded.

"I should have left the job before I even had it," Fitz said, rolling his eyes up at the ceiling, "I should have – as soon as I met her – "

"It was love at first sight?" Karen asked, and Fitz nodded.

"It's rare – and you don't know for sure until later," Fitz warned her, but he nodded, "but yeah – I've never met someone like that before."

"Oh," Karen said as Marta came in, Teddy on her hip with Fitz's oatmeal in her hand.

"Here ya go, honey," Marta said as she handed Karen the bowl of oatmeal, and Karen nodded.

"Thanks," She said, setting the bowl on the nightstand, then reaching for Teddy, "Leave Ted here?"

"Of course," Marta said, giving Fitz a sidelong glance before allowing Teddy to climb down into his sister's lap.

"Thanks, Marta," Karen said as Marta headed out and Karen then set Teddy up on the bed, and Fitz pulled himself up to lean on the head board, Teddy leaning against him.

"Hey, bud."

Fitz tried to seem a little more upbeat for the sake of both of them as he started eating the Oatmeal. The sticky warm mixture felt like come sort of suffication as his mouth filled with goo – but he swallowed anyway because Karen was watching, and so was Teddy. The warmth was enough to make his otherwise dry and uncomfortably content throat want to trigger his gag reflex, but he ignored it as Karen handed him a glass of water, which he took, and drank while Teddy was playing with the end of his spoon. Fitz fed him a quick bite, then continued to finish it himself.

"What do you say, Dad?" Karen asked him as he got up, picking Teddy up off the bed and stacking the dishes, "It's not good for you to lay there all the time. What about get dressed, or playing with Teddy in the backyard?"

"Kare – I – " Fitz said, putting his hand on his forehead for a minute.

"Just take a shower, Dad," She told him as she headed out of the room, "One step at a time. I might be ok, but Teddy's little he's not going to remember any of this – and it's not fair to him that you're not here for him. Not a lot is fair, but he's just baby, Daddy."

Karen and Teddy left the room, and had been gone a few minutes before Fitz opened his eyes again. He stared up at the ceiing, which was more than starting to get a little repetitive then looked out the window. He took a deep breath, thinking about how hot he could nearly boil the shower water – how he could make himself stand under the water. So that maybe he could pretend that that was all there was. The water hitting his face, the soaking wet feeling of the water rolling down his entire body. That was what eventually forced him out of bed, other than the fact that he absolutely did not want to even imagine the look on Karen's face if he didn't at least try.

He wasn't sure how long it was before he got out of bed, but when he did he went straight to the shower. His ankle very clearly had something wrong with it, to the point where he couldn't really put that much pressure on it, so he limped to the bathroom. He shivered as the water hit his ice cold skin, the pain almost too much to handle. He was about to step out of the range of the water – but then just decided to stay there under the water. He held his breath, letting the water fall onto his face. He must have been in there a while, because as he was just thinking about getting out there was a knock on the door.

"Sir," Hal called through the door, "Are you alright, sir?"

"I can shower all by myself," Fitz retorted back at him, "I'm a big boy – I've been doing it for a while. I'll be out in a couple minutes."

"Yes, Sir," Hal replied, and Fitz stopped the water.

He stepped out of the shower, and had to admit that he was feeling just a little bit better. His ankle rolled slightly as he stepped out, and he had to stop himself by grabbing the counter so that he didn't fall on his face. He sighed as he looked into the mirror – he was about five shades redder than he usually was when he was sunburned. The towel he was using was making the feeling on his skin worse, but he just kept going until he was sitting on the closed toilet pulling a sweatshirt on over a t-shirt, trying to figure out how to get jeans on over his limp and very swollen ankle. He managed it, then started limping out to the main bedroom – using the wall to guide himself.

"Sir," Hal said as he helped him to sit on the edge of his bed, "Your ankle is broken."

"It's fine," Fitz replied as Hal brought the leg up on top of the bed, Fitz didn't feel like fighting him.

"I called in a doctor," Hal told him, "He's waiting outside to wrap it up in a soft cast and give you crutches.

"Whatever," Fitz laid back on the bed, lying there all the way through the doctor's visit without saying a word.

As soon as the doctor was gone, he shot Hal a disapproving look before he got himself up on the crutches and headed downstairs. It took him a whole lot longer than it had that morning, until he found Karen and Teddy sitting in the living room. Karen was down on the ground, helping Teddy with a toddler puzzle as he hobbled over to sit down on the couch. Karen looked up at him, and Fitz tried very hard to give her a faint smile, he was sure that it barely showed up.

"What happened?" She asked, and Fitz shrugged.

"I screwed up my ankle, apparently," He told her as Teddy picked something up and toddled over to him with a toy.

"Dadda!" Teddy said as he threw the toy up into his lap, and then attempted to try and climb up next to him – Fitz put his hand on his back to help him up.

"He missed you," Karen commented as she tossed the puzzle into Teddy's toy box.

"I missed him too," Fitz said as Teddy climbed over onto his lap, "Thanks, Kare."

Karen brought up a few of Teddy's puppets, and they played with him together. It didn't exactly take Fitz's mind off anything, but it was at least a little more tiresome than sitting in his bed. This way he might be able to actually fall asleep as opposed to passing out due to boredom and anxiety. He took a deep breath. He thought for a minute as he was sitting there with them about finding some Xanax – or at least a painkiller, but he didn't want it. He wasn't ever going to be ok on his own – and he wasn't ready to fully pretend about it yet, either. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to be ready for that.

"I'm supposed to take Karen to a friends' today," Marta said cautiously as she walked into the room, "I'll be home to make dinner – but would you mind watching Teddy while I take her?"

She looked over at Hal, like he was the one that she was actually asking.

"I can take care of my own son," Fitz said, picking up one crutch, and then putting Teddy onto his hip, "Have fun, be careful, Kare."

"Of course," Karen replied walking over and hugging him carefully, "I'll be back in the morning…"

"Ok," Fitz said, he waited for them to leave, and then headed towards Teddy's back playroom, Hal went to follow him, "Hal – stop. If you follow me in there – I will beat you with my crutch."

"Yes, Sir," Hal replied, and he turned away abruptly as Fitz walked into the room.

He sat down in a chair in the corner and set Teddy down on the ground to go and play. Within a few minutes, Teddy was piling toys at his feet, and Fitz was staring at one of the square tiles on the floor. He had asked many times before how his life had ended up like 'this'. But he had never meant it to much before. He loved his kids, he didn't mind being home with them – but he was the President of the United States, and he hadn't even been able to save his son. His own teenage son. Or – the love of his life. He couldn't even find her. He had gotten up in front of the entire nation and asked them to look for her. She never turned up. What was the point… What was the point of anything? If it had been one, but both?

"…Oh, you are cute – aren't you?" A deep feminine voice was in the room, and it jerked Fitz out of it as he looked up and saw Maya Pope sitting with Teddy on the floor while he was stacking blocks, "I miss when Olivia was this age. It's so much fun."

"Get the hell away from him," Fitz said, raising the closest thing he had – his crutch to throw it at her.

"Careful, you'll hit your son," She replied, stepping back, "I can't imagine your aim is very good at this point't."

"Get. Away from him," Fitz's temper was already through the roof, "What the hell are you doing here, anyway? One child wasn't enough for you?"

"Oh, Mr. President," She cracked a smile, "I think you're very, very confused."


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: That really happy feeling when you finish a paper you didn't want to write in the first place gave me just enough energy to finish this before I go to bed. I also finished the outline for this last night, so let me just warn you to buckle your seat belts now… it's going to be a little twisty, and really dark… anyways… enjoy :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Five

She should have just put her head down on her pillow and gone to sleep. That's what Jake had done, but he had finally managed to switch himself over to working the day shifts. The only problem was that his sleeping schedule had not quite caught up with him, so he had just about passed out on top of the covers before she had even gone in and gotten under them. Her day at work had been boring, which should have made her sleepy. It should have made her want to hit her pillow and go to bed – like any normal person on the face of the Earth. But it didn't. She didn't understand how 'normal' people did it. But instead she had her laptop open to a blank google search, and was staring at the clock. It was almost three in the morning, and she would have to get up and get into the shower in a couple of hours, but she would just have to wait. She opened a new tab, telling herself she would just be on for a few minutes.

She signed into gmail, a fake one that she had made right before she left so that she could contact Abby. They made up email addresses that only teenagers would use and stuck to a pretty young dialect. They had come up with a code that night, to make sure that even if someone scrolled through one – they wouldn't be anything to look twice at. They She could only remember Huck's voice echoing in her head that low tech was the best way to go. So, they were sisters that had been split up by a divorce. The information was all relatively believable.

The message was long, and written in just the right amount of shortened and slightly misspelled words so that Olivia could read it out perfectly. Abby was telling her that Fitz wasn't doing well – worse than how the media was presenting it, and Olivia blinked. It was represented by her being told 'the dog' – Fitz – was sick. Except that no one had known really how sick until their 'mother' – Mellie – had come to say that she should come home. That he was depressed, and that she would make him feel better at least before he 'died' – lost the presidency. Of course, mother had said this off handedly, and that she was still considered dead to her for going off. It was a slightly complicated system, but it worked for them. They had certain code words for emergencies, like if Fitz was actually in danger, or something really serious was going on. And for that, Abby had Olivia's burner phone number. The one that not even Jake knew that she had. Olivia wrote her back saying that 'mom' was a worry-wart and not to get upset. That 'the dog' would be fine, and that it was only a passing thing. She then told her that living with 'dad' – Jake – was wearing thin.

She closed the email and then pulled herself back to the emdpty search box on her google page. She took a deep breath, and looked over at the clock. She would give herself twenty minutes, that was it – and then she would go to sleep. That was the key right? To have steps with something? To go from an hour of looking up Fitz and trying to figure out how he was doing and heading down to zero? Like at some point she might be able to ween herself off of caring what was happening with him. She severely doubted it, but let herself be convinced as she typed in his name – hitting the option for news in the past twenty-four hours.

It came up immediately that it was reported that he was still at the ranch in Santa Barbara. There were no pictures from there – which meant that she couldn't really see how he was doing. For the first month there had been so many. The ones where he was attempting to stay strong, and keep moving. The ones where he was looking for her, where he had the whole country looking for her – and then it got to be a month. And he slowly started to deteriate in front of everyone's eyes. Except maybe it was only her that saw he was gone long before he started to show it. He was gone the morning that he stepped up to the podium and announced that she had gone missing. That she was a great part of their administration, and that he would stop at nothing to find her. But she knew he knew she was gone – maybe not how or why – but she could see the loss in his eyes.

She half wanted to look up pictures, see if anyone had managed to even get anything close to a picture of him. But then she remembered the email that Abby had sent her, and knew that he couldn't have been doing much better than the last time he was seen in public. She took a deep breath, and didn't even want to let herself think about it. In fact, if Mellie was looking for her – then she was getting desperate. Which meant, in turn, that Fitz was doing worse – if that was at all possible. Olivia shut her laptop with a snap and put it on her nightstand, rolling onto her side and glaring out the window.

The curtains had been left open, and she was way too distracted in her own thoughts to even think about getting up to close them. She could see the moon, barely above the buildings and she closed her eyes. Fitz was clouding her every thought, and she just wanted him gone. Everything about him. Every feeling that she had felt for him. It would be so much easier if she could just stop. If she could just not _care_ about him. She wanted to not love him. She wanted to love Jake. They could be a thing – they could have a family – they could be normal. But normal was never in the cards for her, was it? And she knew that it wasn't for Jake either. That's why they were having such an awful time trying to adjust to being 'normal'.

She should sleep – but she couldn't. Everything about this was wrong. Wrong. It might as well have been written in all capital letters in the sky every morning when she walked to work, every night when she was walking back. All she could think about was Fitz. The guilt that she had for leaving him like she had – but she couldn't fix him. He had never wanted to be someone that she fixed – and she couldn't have even if she tried. Her mother had – her mother had killed his son. He – there was no way a relationship rebounded from that. He was grieving. He wasn't just grieving for his son, either. He was grieving for a life. A whole life with Jerry, Karen, Teddy, her and two of their own babies. She was grieving for it too. Because Jerry was gone – and she couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't be the martyr. She couldn't stay knowing that she made his life worse. He would have to grieve – but then he would get over it. She was doing the right thing.

Wrong.

"Liv," Jake whispered in the dark.

She very seriously thought about ignoring him, pretending to be asleep rather than respond to him. She thought better of it as she rolled over to face him – not sure that she had made the best choice. But, it hadn't been like she as paying attention he may have been awake for a little while. Or, she might have woken him up when she had shut her laptop and put it away. He was watching her carefully, like he had been for at the very least a short while. She took a deep breath, and waited for him to say something else.

"You're tense," Jake replied, "Why aren't you asleep yet? Is everything ok?"

"I'm ok," She lied, and he nodded, "Just having trouble sleeping."

"Ok," He said as he reached over and put his arms around her.

Wrong. Her forehead fell loosely against his chest, and she could feel her outer shell that she had been working so hard to toughen up starting to crack. She was exhausted, beaten down, and she started to cry. She wasn't sure if they were sad or angry tears – but she knew that it hardly mattered either way. She tried to stem them as quickly as she could so that Jake might not notice. But it seemed like he was one step ahead of her, and was wiping the tears off of her cheek with his thumb lightly. He turned his head down to touch his forehead to her's – but she pulled away. Rolling back onto her side to look out the window.

"We both knew this was going to be hard," Jaksw said, and she nodded like he would be able to notice the slight movement in the dark.

"I know," Olivia replied, pulling the covers up over her shoulders, "We made the right call. It's always harder to do the right thing."

"It does," Jake assured her, "We're fine. We're – we just have to find a rhythm."

"Normal people – with normal jobs," Olivia took a deep breath, "We needed to do what was best for us."

Wrong.

Olivia continued to look out the window, unable to sleep, all night. That was until she heard birds starting to chirp outside, which is when she pressed her face into the pillow harder than before. Like if she pressed her face into it hard enough then she would pass out by sheer will. Instead, she just laid there until her alarm went off, which she hit so hard that the sound of her hand hitting the top of it was louder than the actual alarm. Jake made a moved like he was going to say something, but she didn't give him a chance. She was in the shower before he had even managed to pull himself up to a sitting position.

"Good morning," Olivia smiled to girl behind the counter as she paid for her morning tea.

She looked at her phone and realized that in her hurry to get out of the house, she had created an extra forty five minutes before she had to be at work. So, she picked a table in the corner to eat her breakfast at. They had the news on in the opposite corner, and she was watching it casually. That was until Fitz's face filled the screen, and she attempted to look down at her muffin instead. It was like the footage of a train wreck that she had seen too many times, but she still couldn't look away. It was the last speech that Fitz had given before running away to hide out in Santa Barbara. The clip had already gone through a few news cycles, and disappeared – but now it was back. Most likely it just happened to be a slow news day.

The television was muted, but that was ok because even with the speech rolling at the bottom of the screen, she knew the whole thing by heart. He broke off – and scrolling text disappeared as he reached up to wipe his eyes. At first it seemed like he might have just simply been itching his eye, so he was still in the clear. He stood up a little straighter for the next few sentences, trying to recover before his whole stance and demeanor started to collapse in on itself. Until finally his voice would crack, and his eyes would go wide. He couldn't hide it anymore, he couldn't keep pushing everything down. His eyes filled with tears that had been waiting somewhere inside of him for a month – maybe longer. She knew he had been carrying them around, letting them weigh him down almost like a badge. Then, just as he realized that he had lost his mask on live television, he had to lean on the podium for support. Like the physically could not support even his own body weight anymore, not after carrying everything else. The tears started falling at a rapid pace, almost as viciously as the camera flashes of the press went across his face. Tom appeared in the corner of the screen to help him off. At first Fitz waved him off, his head dipping lower and a sound coming from his throat that didn't even sound human anymore –

That was enough. She wiped the tear from her own eye, and stood up in the little bakery, leaving her muffin with her appetite in the trash. She had seen it all far too many times to count when it was on its first news cycle, and it broke her heart every time. To see him like that was worse than anything she could have imagined, and secretly she was glad that she wasn't there for it. She had never been strong enough to deal with stuff like that, she couldn't even deal with it and she was God knows how far away, seeing him on the news. She had run away, run away when he had needed her the most. You see, most of the time she could convince herself that she had done it for both of their goods, but not right after that. Not right after seeing him fall apart like that, not knowing that Mellie was so desperate to 'fix' him that she had gone around asking Abby where she was. That was too much, and the only feeling she had was yet another 'wrong'.

"Mrs. Garside," Olivia said with a pleasant smile on her face as she walked into her office building, finishing up her tea and throwing it into the trash in the waiting room.

Mrs. Garside was a particularly old woman, but extraordinarily pristine in the way that she kept herself. Her hair was always tied back in a very neat bun, and true to her stereotype, didn't show much emotion. The news had been on in the waiting room too, and Olivia tried not to look as they were now analyzing what had happened. She tried to focus in on Mrs. Garside, who had come to her on Monday that week looking to set up a will for her estate. Olivia had been so busy that she had had to tell her to come back. And, for some reason – even though it was fairly normal a practice for the firm she was at – she felt awful about having asked her to wait.

"C'mon in," Olivia smiled to her, and Mrs. Garside waved her off.

"You're not even supposed to be in to work for another twenty minutes," Mrs. Garside chastised her, and Olivia made a friendly rolling of the eyes.

"Come on, I'm here early, I might as well get something done."

Olivia led her towards her office, and Mrs. Garside stayed fairly quiet until Olivia opened up the door to her office. Mrs. Garside went right over to sit in the chair facing Olivia's desk, and Olivia shut the door behind them.

"Terrible thing that happened to President Grant's son," She said conversationally, and Olivia nodded as she get herself situated behind her desk – pulling up an empty case file, "You're American, yes? Where were you from?"

"I'm from New York," Olivia toed the line, and the woman nodded.

"No parent should ever have to bury their own child," Mrs. Garside told her, and Olivia nodded.

"I agree with you there."

"Do you have any children?"

"No," Olivia replied, and Mrs. Garside smiled.

"You've got time," She said, and Olivia nodded.

"We should really get going on this…"

"Are you married?"

"Yes," Olivia lied, putting her left hand on the desk, the two rings shining in the sunlight, "Just about a month ago."

"Are in love, Mrs. Pearson?"

Olivia paused, curious at the phrasing and separation of the two questions. She took a deep breath, it was never as easy as that, right? She was 'married' in the sense that it was part of her backstory, and she was in love, but it wasn't Jake. It wasn't someone from her new life. It was her trying to cling to her old self, and that just wasn't something that necessarily needed to happen, right? If she was going to move on, if she was going to manage to make herself a healthy, normal person – which was the goal – she was going to have to let go of him. Her heart sank in her chest just thinking about it. She couldn't.

"Yes," Olivia smiled kindly, like it was a good thing, not something that would one day finally be the reason she couldn't get out of bed anymore.

"Good," The old woman's eyes sparkled, "I lost a child. My first – Anthony."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It was years ago, i try not to think about it too much at my old age," She waved it off, "He was ten – you probably weren't even born yet. But it destroyed my husband and I, we ended up getting a divorce. This was back when that was a bigger deal, and of all the pain that it was to try and deal with losing Anthony, it was so much worse doing it without my husband by my side. I loved him so much, but it was just like we couldn't make it work. We had our daughters three and seven years after the divorce. We couldn't stay away from each other. We were hopelessly in love, even if we couldn't figure out how to make it work."

Olivia sat there – frozen not knowing whether to continue her friendly mask or break down and cry right there.

"…Anyway," Mrs. Garside continued, "The point of the story is, don't let that man out of your arms for anything, you hear me, Olivia? You keep him real close no matter what happens, because life is hard, but it's even harder when you lose the person you're supposed to be able to lean on."

"What happened to Mr. Garside?" Olivia asked her, knowing that she probably didn't want to know.

"He was killed coming to get our girls for the weekend," She said, and Olivia couldn't help but feel her heart sink somewhere lower than her stomach, "It was a long time ago. I'm very much ok now. I just feel so badly for President Grant. I do hope he's getting what he needs while he's taking his break. It just breaks my heart to see anyone going through that."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Enjoy :) I'll try to update What Could Have Been this weekend, but we'll see...

The Redeemed

Chapter Six

It was weird getting off the plane in DC, and realizing just how little had actually changed in the world – even if her's was entirely different. The minute her feet hit the ground, photographers were right in her face, and her secret service agents wanted to bring her directly to the White House. This wasn't exactly what she was planning on. If there was anywhere in the world she knew Olivia wasn't – it was right there in DC, one place in particular that Big White mansion. She couldn't imagine that Olivia would allow herself within a hundred miles of anything that had to do with Fitz. What she needed to do was get on to the street, find Huck – look into what had happened to Olivia's other two team members. Harrison, the talker, and that girl with the big , wide, annoying eyes. She needed to lay low and find them before she spoke at the new hospital in the morning. Instead, they were bringing her right to the White House, no one paying attention to her protests.

"Welcome back, Mrs. Grant," The doorman greeted her as she walked in – looking a whole lot less than pleased.

"Uhuh," She replied, making a face as she very nearly jogged to her own office space.

"Mrs. Grant," Caitlyn, her secretary stood up as she walked into the lobby.

"I need Huck," Mellie said to her – no longer caring how exactly she found him.

"Huck?" Caitlyn asked, looking thoroughly confused as she glanced over at her computer – they both knew a search for 'Huck' would come up with at best a scholar on the Mark Twainn book.

"Talk to Lauren," Mellie told her, "He helped us with the election. He was part of Miss Pope's team. I need him here, today – as soon as possible."

"Lauren – "

"If Lauren doesn't have it, check with Cyrus' aide," Mellie continued, "he'll have some way of contacting him…"

"Of course, Madame First Lady," Caitlyn replied as she headed out of the Lobby, most likely to confer with Lauren as Mellie headed into her private office – shutting the door behind her.

There was a stack of folders and papers on her desk that could only mean that Cyrus had been true to his word in attempting to keep her at least basically informed. She sat down and was about to at least scan through some of it when there was a knock on the door. Her headed popped up, and she saw Andrew slip in through the door without waiting for her to call him in. She leaned back in her chair, she had been hoping to a have a little more time before he found out that she was there. But what exactly could she expect? The news had caught her getting off the plane.

"How you holding up, Mel?" Andrew asked her, the pity in his voice was enough to make her want to scream.

"I'm fine, Andrew," She said, sticking the stack of papers and files into a drawer as he sat down on the edge of her desk.

"Like hell you are," He replied, and Mellie took a deep breath, "Mellie – why won't you let me – "

"There's no time to throw a pity party, Andrew," Mellie said as she stood up and put a hand out to stop him from getting too close to her, "There's still a lot to do, and things that need to happen. I don't have time to – "

"You realize that was the logic that Fitz was using," He pointed out, and Mellie rolled her eyes.

"My husband tried to push through," Mellie replied, distain in her voice as she said the word 'Husband', "And then the one person he needed – the one person that could force him better – that he would listen to went missing. She took off on him."

"Mel – " Andrew tried to stop her – like it wasn't Olivia's fault that she was missing in action.

"She's alive, Andrew," She said, and he looked at her like she had lost her mind.

"No one's heard form her in almost two full months," Andrew said, "Does that sound like Olivia to you?"

"Andrew – it's not me having hope, or wishing a happy ending – where everything goes back to normal," Mellie replied, "There is no more normal, there's no way to go back to the status quo. I'm telling you that she's alive somewhere, hiding."

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't know."

"Was someone threatening her?"

"I don't know – why're you looking at me like that?" Mellie could see him accusing her, "I hated her, I was jealous of her, and I didn't really like her – but I would never threaten her."

Andrew gave her a disbelieving look.

"At least not to the point where she had to disappear off the face of the earth."

He gave her an even more disbelieving look.

"I didn't," Mellie replied, pointedly, "And I'm going to find her."

"How?" Andrew asked her, "If she is alive, and hiding – no one's going to find her. Fitz very nearly flipped the world upside down looking for her, a few times over and he found nothing."

"Fitz was looking like a lover."

"With all the world's powers at his disposal," Andrew reminded her, and she took a deep breath, "And who else but a lover would find someone? He never would have given up if he wasn't forced to – and he still has a small party looking."

"His head is clouded with the fact that he may never see her again," Mellie replied as she crossed her arms, "I don't have that fear."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?"

"Bullshit," Andrew replied, "You think that if you can find her and bring her home, then Fitz will come back to normal. And you're terrified of what will happen if he doesn't come back to his old self."

"No one's their old self anymore."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Andrew said, and Mellie scoffed.

"I'm not going to leave you, Andrew," She said, and his eyebrows went up, "I – I want to be with you. I want to be the first lady, and then I want my own career. I don't want Fitz – but I can't just bail right now. I have to – I have to find Olivia Pope. I have to bring her back for Fitz because it's my fault she's gone. I didn't threaten her, and I didn't chase her off. Though, God knows that I tried. No. This is bigger than our little soap opera drama, and our love triangles. Olivia Pope was everything that I wished I could be. And if she disappears I win."

"Isn't that what you want?"

"No," Mellie replied, "I want to beat her. Saint Olivia Pope, if she's dead and she's gone – she'll always be the saint. I want her tiny little ass back here so that I can prove that I am better. That Fitz wants less than me, and let them ride off into the sunset and the hell away from me so that I can be free. So that no one thinks that my hatred of her is because of Fitz – because that couldn't be further from the truth."

"You want to be free," Andrew said, and Mellie nodded.

"I want to be free," Mellie confirmed as someone knocked on the door – Andrew slipped off of the desk, "Come in, Caitlyn."

"Ma'am I got in touch with the gentleman that you wanted to speak with," Caitlyn said as she poked her head in the door, "And I believe that he's just arrived and going through security now. I just wanted to give you a head's up before he was coming in."

"Thank you, Caitlyn," Mellie dismissed her, and she slipped back out the door.

"You're summoning a gentleman?"

"Hardly," Mellie wrung her hands, "I summoned Huck."

"Huck?"

"He was one of Olivia's team," Mellie said, fixing her hair lightly, "The computer hacker, or whatever."

"So what's he going to be able to do?" He asked, "Her team was all questioned…"

"Abby knows where she is – that's how I found out she's alive," Mellie said, and Andrew nodded, "They're covering for her. But if I talk to all of them.."

"They might each say something different," Andrew replied, "You're brilliant."

"Huck might be more willing to help," Mellie replied, "Especially if he thinks she's in trouble."

"Genius," Andrew said, and Mellie smiled.

"Oh, I know," She replied and he went to get up, "Where are you going?"

"Back to my office…"

"It's probably better if you stay here," Mellie replied, and Andrew raised his eyebrows.

"You're sure?"

"Mmhmm," Mellie replied, and Andrew nodded.

"Ok, I'll stay," He said, finding a seat on her office couch as there was a knock again on the door.

"Come on in," Mellie said in a somewhat sing-song voice.

The door opened, and Huck walked in. He looked a little rattier and dirtier than usual – though, she had to admit that it was a large improvement as compared to their first meeting. He was, at least, wearing a pair of jeans, and was relatively cleaned up instead of the hobo that he used to be. She breathed in lightly as Huck looked around the room as if terrified. This was a little concerned that he was so scared. She couldn't remember ever seeing him nervous, but she took a breath instead.

"Madame First Lady," He said quietly, almost creepily as he stared at his shoes.

"Huck," Mellie smiled – wondering if he could tell if it was fake, he could – so she dropped it, "I wanted to talk to you about Olivia."

"Olivia's gone," Huck replied, and Mellie nodded, "I don't know where she went. She didn't tell me."

"Ok," Mellie replied, realizing quickly why Olivia had always treated him as she did.

He was a child. He needed – in normal social situations – to be treated like one. He was a monster, she knew that from what she had overheard between Olivia and Cyrus, but he was wounded. Wounded just like every other person that Olivia had chosen to work with. Broken like Fitz had always been. Saint Olivia Pope, patron saint of lost souls, and healer of all. She was more like Jesus Christ in the flesh, wasn't she? Maybe she had ascended back to heaven.

"Why now?" Huck asked, for the first time looking up, but still not looking at her directly – refusing to make eye contact, "Olivia's been gone for two months."

"We think she's in trouble," Mellie said, and Huck nodded.

"I could have told you that before she left," Huck said, and Mellie was pleasantly surprised.

"Do you have any idea where she is?"

"No. I think Abby knows. And her dad," Huck replied as he scratched his head.

"I tried talking to Abby, she didn't want to say," Mellie said, and Huck shrugged, "What about her father? Where is he?"

"You don't want to go that route," Huck replied, and Mellie furrowed her brow.

"Why not?"

"It's not a good option," Huck replied, "I could probably see if I could track them…"

"We're supposed to believe that you have no idea where Miss Pope is?" Andrew said as he got up, joining the conversation, "No idea?"

"I have a few ideas," Huck replied, "But I ran into a few technical difficulties."

"Where?" Mellie asked and Huck shrugged, "Where?"

"Prague, London, Rome, or Sydney," Huck told her, "But it's not like we're going to just be able to go and get her. I'd like to – but she wouldn't allow it. She's – he had her convinced that it was her idea."

"Who?"

"Her father."

"Her father," Mellie was missing something, and she knew it, "What does any of this have to do with Olivia's father?"

"Everything," Cyrus was panting as he pushed through the door and into the room, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm looking into what happened."

"Not a good move," Cyrus panted as he leaned against the wall, "You should stop. It's not – "

"What?" Mellie asked as Cyrus finished catching his breath, and shut the door.

"It's not worth looking into," Cyrus said, "Olivia's – "

"What?"

"She has Jake with her," Huck piped in and Cyrus nodded.

"You're in above your head, Mellie," Cyrus said, as Andrew got up and went and stood in the circle with him.

"How do you even know what I'm doing?" Mellie asked and Cyrus took a deep breath.

"There's only one reason for him to be here," Cyrus said, gesturing over to Huck, "And it's not a good idea. I'm telling you, it's not a good idea."

"You knew she was alive?" Mellie accused him, "How long?"

"Doesn't matter," Cyrus said, and Mellie narrowed her gaze, which made him wheeze a little bit, "I spoke to Rowan two days ago."

Huck's face went to something resembling stone, and Mellie shook her head.

"I didn't even know Olivia's father was still alive," She said, and Cyrus nodded.

"Oh, he's going to outlive all of us," Cyrus said, and Mellie noticed that he was specifically not looking at Huck, "He'll make sure of it."

Huck seemed to be shutting down a little bit, which was impossible for all three of them not to notice.

"Son," Cyrus addressed him, "I'm sorry that they called you in here. You can go."

"Cyrus!" Mellie nearly shouted and Cyrus shot her a scathing look.

"You have no idea what you are doing," Cyrus said, putting his hand on Huck's shoulder – but he threw it off, "How dare you drag him into this. You have absolutely no idea what you're up against. You have no idea what kind of things go on behind the curtains around here."

"So then someone fill me in," Mellie said, as Huck went and walked behind where they were all standing to sit on the couch that Andrew had now vacated.

"It's not something you can be filled in on," Cyrus retorted, "Just know that it is not your place, Mellie. Olivia would have known what she was getting herself into. She was smart, and she's –"

"She had no idea," Huck finally spoke up, and the three of them turned to look at him sitting on the couch – staring off into nothingness – he was starting to scare her now, "None of you have any idea what he's capable of."

"Olivia's father?" Mellie asked, and Huck nodded.

"You know of him, you've met him," Huck looked over in Cyrus' general direction, "But you still have no idea the kind of monster that he is. The kind of monster that convinces you he's friend just so that he can wait to tear your soul in two the moment that it will hurt the most. The kind of man who would murder a kid to get back at a man for threatening his power."

Mellie furrowed her brow, what was Huck talking about.

"A man who would murder a kid, and not even have the honor to do it himself," Huck continued, and Mellie sat down – realizing what Huck was talking about.

"Olivia's father…"

"A man who would trick his own daughter into running away with a man that was under his control," Huck said, and Cyrus raised his eye brows, "Jake went with her, sir. He thought he was getting out. But no one gets out. He takes you when you're young – and he never lets go. He'll never let go, of either of them. I've been going over this in my head since she left. Since they left. She didn't know. We thought it was Maya. We thought that it was Liv's mother – but her father was the devil the whole time. 'The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he didn't exist'. He said that he was her dad, and that he loved her. But he doesn't know anything about things like that – He lost his humanity a long, long time ago."

"Olivia's father runs a top secret organization," Cyrus cut him off, looking at Andrew, and then at Mellie, "I can't exactly tell you what that organization does – but I think you can guess."

He nodded over towards Huck.

"So he kidnapped his own daughter?" Andrew asked, "Did Fitz know about this?"

"He did," Cyrus said, nodding, "He wanted to get rid of him. Liv's father is inarguably the most dangerous man that I can think of off the top of my head – and that's coming from me. Fitz tried to dethrown him, and it worked – until…"

"He killed Jerry," Mellie said, trying not to let the horror cross her face like it was her mind.

"He had someone do it," Huck said, "He was in the hospital at the time, so no one thought it was. He tried to blame Liv's mom."

"What?" Andrew asked.

"She's a terrorist."

"Of course she is," Mellie rolled her eyes.

"He told the President it was her mother," Huck said, "He told Olivia it was her mother. Then, he took Olivia away."

"And he made her think that she was deciding?" Cyrus checked, and Huck nodded.

"I made a mistake," Huck said, but the three of them went back into a circle.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Mellie asked, and Andrew sighed.

"I don't know that there's much we can do," Cyrus said, and Andrew shook his head.

"There has to be something we can do to bring her back."

"It wouldn't be a very good idea," Cyrus said, "You - B613 – you don't want to mess with these people. You might get away with it for a little while – but…"

"Fitz blames himself for Jerry," Mellie said, and Cyrus nodded.

"That is part of it," Cyrus said, "But he's not that stupid. I think he might think her father did something – or her mother got to her."

"We need to get her," Mellie insisted, and Cyrus's face went to be about thirty shades darker – almost purple.

"Are you hearing what we are telling you Mellie?" Cyrus shouted, "Should I try and tell you in another language? There is no beating these people. They are terrorists as privateers on behalf of the United States. They're untouchable – they are the monster under the bed and the man waiting in the alleyway. They are in control – he is in control. To go and try to save Olivia? It would be safer to wait here and let her stay wherever the hell she is. Because you can bet the second her father hears we're even close to her, he'll order Captain Ballard to snap her neck. You've done enough damage, Mellie. Leave it alone."

With that, Cyrus went to storm out of the office, but stopped – realizing that Huck had stood up.

"Olivia saved me from them," Huck said, stepping in front of the door, between it and Cyrus, "She saved you. And she saved you."

Huck looked around Cyrus at Mellie, who took a step backward.

"We're going to help her."

"That's right," Mellie nodded, then looked over at Andrew – who nodded.

"It's the least we can do."

Cyrus turned around and took a deep breath.

"Ok," Cyrus said, "But if we're going to do this, we're going to be smart about it."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Hello, lovelies – the next installment for you all to read and somehow enjoy… now that everyone's been introduced, and you've seen where they are, it's time for the story to go on. Enjoy :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Seven

Cyrus sat down in his office late that afternoon – staring at the ceiling still really questioning the decision that the group had made to go out and find Olivia. He knew that morally it might have be the right thing to do, but there was enough in the world without going after her. She was happy – as far as he knew – and if she wasn't happy, she was at least under the impression that it was her own idea, her own choice. That was all that freedom was, right? The misunderstood assumption that you were actually free to do what you wanted, when really all you were 'free' to do was follow in everyone else's footsteps. You were free to sit down, shut up, and follow the rules. You had the freedom to obey, and that was exactly the freedom that Olivia had in that moment. He felt sorry for her, he did – but when he thought about it, it wasn't all that much different than her being there with them.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Mellie nearly shrieked as she came barging into his office, "I thought that this was something that you would want. Your darling Olivia back in our oh-so-honored presence."

"Stop it," Cyrus jumped to his feet and went over to her, "I – I love Olivia. She's a great girl – she's the best student that I have ever had. This is sad for me, Mellie. Truly, I would love for Olivia to walk through my door right now and tell me everything that I'm doing wrong. For her to walk in and tell me everything that's happened herself – to have her tell me why my best friend that I drank wine and complained about James went because I've needed her. I have missed, and I have grieved for Olivia Pope. I miss sitting on her couch and complaining about our men. I miss having her here to side with me in arguments and tell me when I'm doing something wrong. You miss your rival – which I can understand. But I miss my friend. I miss one of the very few people who actually knew me and still liked me anyway. So, I'm very, very sorry that you lost someone to compete with – but to be honest, there was no way you were ever going to win against her anyway. She's fine where she is."

"For how long?" Mellie asked him, and Cyrus looked up, "Seriously, how long will she be fine? Until Fitz comes back and tries to do something her father doesn't like? Until you do something that he wished that you'd fix. How long will it be until he's calling the White House with lists of demands so that Olivia won't be murdered in her sleep? How will Fitz, or Andrew, or anyone in this White House be able to deal with that?"

Cyrus took a minute to try and figure out how to respond.

"You and Fitz are two peas in a pod," Mellie rolled her eyes as she glared at Cyrus, "You take away the person that you say you love and you turn into jell-o. Literally, sobbing messes without a damn backbone. This guy – Olivia's dad? We can't let him win. We can't – I can't let him win. I – This is the man that was responsible for Jerry's death, and we're just going to give him the satisfaction of winning?"

"The satisfaction? He won," Cyrus said, "He took James – though that was mostly my fault – he took Jerry, and he took Olivia. He'll take whoever else is going to get in his way…"

"How are you ok with that?" Mellie asked him, outraged.

"Sometimes you have to learn when it's just best to let it be," Cyrus, "To put your head down, don't look up – roll over and play dead. What's going to happen to you Mellie? Fitz is going to give up the Presidency, Andrew will become the president. You divorce Fitz, and then we can figure out how to make a narrative so that you can get married to Andrew. Then, you can launch your own career. A dead son, divorcing a husband who no longer was productive because you didn't want to die with your son… or something like that…"

"The only person who could pull that off, is Olivia."

"You're still not listening – this is the time to play dead, Mellie."

"I have never, and will never do such a thing," Mellie retorted and then made a face, "It's not fair. She's the one who loves him – she should have to be here picking up the pieces. I am too smart, and too gifted to have to deal with Fitz for even one more day – "

She looked flustered for a minute, and then took off out of the door. Cyrus rolled his eyes and went back to work prepping Andrew's new speech, so that he could give it President Grant's seal of approval, not that that meant much nowadays. He would find Mellie later, and find some way to solidify his position on the 'rescue team'. A team which he would have to point out was more rag-tag than he had ever seen in his life. He took a deep breath, shuffling the papers of the speech together and pulling them up to his face so that he could read them without any sort of strain on his eyes. He just had to get throw it before he could go for lunch – he was planning on bringing Ella to lunch, so she didn't have to sit with the nanny.

"Cyrus," Andrew said as he walked in about an hour later, 'picking him up' for their morning military briefing.

They had been selling the line that they had been filling Fitz in on the condition of the country, and working with him to make decisions. Anyone at all close to the situation would know that this was complete bullshit that would and never had happened in the weeks since Fitz had fled the White House. Because that was exactly what he had done, once it was clear that no one was going to be able to find Olivia. That's probably what he should have done when James was killed – probably what he would have done if he had had enough of a soul left to realize that that was what any decent human being would have done. But if he did it now, what would he have? He would be office-less and soul-less.

Olivia used to joke that after Fitz was done, she would be able to sell a Gay President. It was her goal, to make a gay president. Cyrus had always hoped that it would be him, but he assumed that that would have been too much of a stretch. You didn't have to be holding all of the cards, but you at least had to be holding some of them. Like a nice head of hair, a smile that didn't come off as creepy, and about a foot more height than he had. But still, he had held out hope that maybe someday he could do it. And Olivia would help him. They wouldn't have to rig it, and the democracy would work as it was supposed to. But then again, it wasn't supposed to work for more than twenty years. Revolutions, they had been abandoned.

"Yes," Cyrus replied, getting up from his desk and buttoning his suit jacket as he walked around his desk.

"Wait – I think they'll excuse us a few minutes," Andrew said, and Cyrus rolled his eyes.

"What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you, Cy," Andrew said, furrowing his brow, "I understand and appreciate that you know more about this deal than the rest of us. At least from a political angle, and I don't know how much information we're going to be able to get that's usable from that Huck character."

"Huck's a good man, loyal to Olivia," Cyrus said, then paused for a second, "He'll help you when and where he can."

"But he has a downside," Andrew continued, and Cyrus nodded.

"He was trained by B613 as a weapon," Cyrus told him, "He was trained in probably the harshest and most extreme conditions that we can think of times at least three. He's more man than he is machine. He was trained to torture and kill, and how to get away with it without anyone knowing the wiser. He's the super spy that they make movies about – except it's really not that 'cool' in real life. He was Olivia's secret weapon, not that she ever asked him to use his skills. If he senses anyone is not being loyal, or doing the right thing by her when they are telling him they are – and he takes offense. It's bad. He understands the concept of family, but if you're an outsider – be careful. He's a guard dog waiting for the new guests to trip up and show something he doesn't like."

"Ok," Andrew said as he took a deep breath, "And what about Olivia's father. This guy Rowan."

"There's really no point in me explaining him to you," Cyrus replied, as he fixed his jacket, "If you run into him and he thinks you're no longer useful to him – he'll kill you. I sold my soul for this office that we're standing in now. I have no idea how or what he traded to get where he is."

"So what're the odds of us being able to pull this off?"

Cyrus didn't even bother to use the breath to answer him, and instead led the way out of his private office and down to the briefing. The briefing was just a little bit shorter than usual, which was nice as Cyrus jotted down notes. In case Fitz decided to return to the land of the living anytime soon. Even if he did, Cyrus prayed that he would choose to step down. It would force him out, so it was no longer in his control. He would have no choice but to face the products of his decisions. The consequences that he had been putting off like student loans, he would deal with them after he had his fun in office. Now that he was looking at the end of it, he wasn't sure that it had all been worth it.

He spent lunch with Ella without an issue, her nanny's nephw's birthday was that day – so after work he told her that he'd pick her up from her parents' house where they were having the party. He didn't really care either way, and stuffed the address into his pocket so that he would be able to find it later. He wasn't really disturbed once he had sat back down behind his desk after running out for lunch. He didn't really pay attention to the fact, and spent his time reading over speeches. And when he was done with Andrew's, he had been working on Fitz's resignation speech - because it was more of a formality at this point – for about the past week. He knew that Fitz would probably want to write it himself – but that would have been old Fitz. Who knew what kind of Fitz was evolving up in that cocoon of misery that he was spinning himself. He just wanted to be ready to help him transition out without too many problems.

"Mr. Beene – it's nearly six," His secretary stuck her head into his office – he looked up, confused, "You have to pick your daughter up in fifteen minutes."

"Thank you," Cyrus said as he stashed everything to do with Fitz's resignation into a locked drawer before grabbing his coat.

The nanny's parents' house was just outside the city, on a nearly dirt country road. He had always wondered what it was like the grow up out in a place like that. Then he remembered that that was how James had grown up, and he had had one word for it 'Hell'. Hell to a kid James who had been loved and accepted by his family, and yet the town not so much. The whispers and side glances from the old women in church – that you also had to run into at the super market, and the drug store – and at the school rallys. Cyrus parked along the side of the grass and went to get out when he paused, his car door left hanging open. He had the very distinct feeling that he was being watched, and it wasn't the neighbors or the overly religious and judgmental old women who reserved the front pew at church every week.

"Rowan," He breathed, and sure enough he saw the slender man standing across the street by the trees, and a dark car waiting with him.

Was there any fighting it? He went over to him. His spine quivering – terror rushing through him. All he wanted was to get Ella, and take her as far away from there as possible. His eyes darted over towards the house quickly, then back at Rowan.

"Great day for a party," Rowan said, looking up at the cloudless sky, and Cyrus nodded.

"I remember Olivia had a World War II themed one when she was eight," Rowan said, Cyrus nodded.

"Did any of the other kids go?"

"They did, in costume," Rowan replied, and Cyrus nodded, "I guess that was when I should have realized just how much trouble I was going to be in with her."

"Huh," Cyrus pretended to be amused, but looked back at the house again, looking for signs of movement,  
"Probably."

"Relax, your daughter is fine," Rowan told him abruptly, "Not a single hair on her head touched. And it will stay that way."

"It will?"

"Just as long as you make sure that no one goes anywhere near my daughter," Rowan said, "That this little team does not take my daughter from where she is. Where she is safe from you ridiculous fools, and where she will not be subjected to – "

"I don't have any control of –"

"I am asking something very simple from you, Cyrus," Rowan said, and Cyrus froze, "Is there something about it that you do not understand? Am I speaking a foreign language to you? It is very simple. My daughter stays where she is, and so does yours."

"Olivia's a grown…"

"I do not care," Eli told him, "You will do everything in your power to keep anyone who might sway Olivia's thoughts from staying where she is away from her. And I will stay away from your daughter."

Cyrus stood there, still not moving. Still not saying anything as he heard the screen door behind him open and shut. Ice ran cold in his heart as he shot a panicked look over at Rowan, and felt a weight hit him in the leg as Ella wrapped her arms around his leg. She clung to him, and looked up at Rowan as if she had simply walked over to her father speaking with a friend.

"Hello," Rowan said to her, in an almost cruelly child friendly voice, then looked to Cyrus, "Think about our deal, because it's non-negotiable."

Cyrus put a hand down on Ella's head, and then pulled her up onto his hip. Once had had stood back up, Rowan was gone. He turned to the car just in time to see it driving away, at break-neck speed.

"Who was that?" Ella asked in her mostly fragmented speech.

"A friend of daddy's," Cyrus propetuated her fairytale, "C'mon, honey."

"Home?" Ella asked him as he strapped her into her carseat in the back of his car.

"Daddy's just going to have to make a little detour to work, ok?" Cyrus shut her door before she could respond.

He sped across town, dodging cars like he had somehow switched into a video game, and miraculously made it to the White House without being pulled over. He had to stop whatever Mellie and her 'team' was planning, because while he had been standing there with Rowan, he had realized something. He had realized that he hadn't seen Mellie, or Andrew the whole day after lunch, and not only had they not arrived in his office about something, he hadn't even heard them in the halls when he was walking around. They were up to something, and he had to stop them before they did something that he was going to pay for. Because if he ever lost Ella – he wasn't sure that he was going to be able to hang on to whatever little fraction of the human side of him he would be able to hold onto.

"Where are they?" Cyrus walked into the Oval, Ella on his hip – he had already checked for Mellie and she was gone.

"What do you mean?" Andrew tried to play dumb, and Cyrus set Ella down, crossing the room in violent steps until he was standing with a finger in Andrew's face.

"Don't fucking give me that," Cyrus' voice cracked – he could feel his face going red, "The three of you have been almost silent all afternoon. Where the fuck did they go? Out for coffee? The airport? To plaster Olivia's face on some more telephone poles?"

"They're on a flight to London," Andrew told him, checking his watch, "They should be landing soon, "It turns out Huck was closer to finding them than he thought."

Cyrus heard the slap of his hand across Andrew's face before he realized that he had decided to do it. The next thing he heard was an agonizing cry, but that was him as the secret service came in – and Andrew waved them away.

"You've killed her," Cyrus shouted.


	8. Chapter 8

A/n: So, fanfiction isn't really updating this that accurately, so if you're not seeing chapters updated until it's two new chapters, just add it to your alerts… some of you may have realized that this isn't necessarily a fairytale FF, so I'll just admit to that now…. and of course, as always – enjoy the chapter, my loves :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Eight

There was only so many times that Jake could walk in circles around the very small city before he absolutely had to go home. To Olivia, who he had never thought that he would ever not want to spend time with – and there he was, avoiding her to the absolute best of his ability. The last thing that he wanted at that moment as he leaned against the rail, looking out over the water, and trying not to think too hard about what was going on. He had exactly what he wanted, and yet he was running away from it. He had hardly been able to believe his ears when she has said she was leaving – after Jerry was killed. That she was letting herself be disappeared, and when he had weaseled his way in to going with her – this was not what he had been expecting. He had not been expecting to feel to guilty. How had he gotten into this mess? Since when did command do anything personal? And why had he chosen him? Because he was a company man, that was why.

"Son? Are you ok?"

Jake turned around and saw an elderly man standing on the sidewalk behind him. He stepped down from where he was standing on the edge and noticed the collar he was wearing. A priest? Out this late? He checked his watch and realized that it was almost midnight, and this particular priest was carrying bags of groceries. Bread, and water. Jake took a deep breath, and wasn't sure what to say. The man waited patiently for an answer as Jake looked either way up and down the sidewalk.

"No," He told him honestly, and the priest nodded.

"You're not that not ok though, right?" The priest was looking anxiously over at the water, and Jake followed his gaze.

"Oh – no," Jake said instantly, "No, I – I could never do that. I- I'm just having a rough night."

"A rough night?"

"Or a rough month or two," Jake replied, and the priest nodded, opening the bag and offering him some of the food, "No, I'm all set."

"You have food," He checked, and Jake nodded, "Ok c'mon."

"What?" Jake asked as he followed the man across the street.

"You're young, you're ok off, but those things don't really make you happy, do they?" The priest asked, and Jake didn't really respond as the Priest led him up to an alleyway.

Jake looked down it to see that it was filled with homeless men, who perked up a little when they saw the priest. He had seen them earlier, heckling passersby as they headed to the night view of the river. The priest opened up the bag, and Jake was expecting a frenzy, but none of the men moved, they simply smiled up at him. They had patience with him as he handed them the bread, and they passed it down the line until all the men had been fed, and given a bottle of water. The men murmured 'thanks' and allowed the priest to walk down the center of them, looking each of them up and down for a minute before moving on to the next one. He paused over one or two, pulling a cloth out of his pocket and wiping their faces, then handing them small bandages – helping them put them on. When the priest got back to where Jake stood his bag was empty, and he threw it into the trash motioning for Jake to follow him.

"Why'd you do that?" Jake asked him as they walked back down the street.

"They don't deserve care?" The priest asked him, and Jake paused.

"Doesn't someone else do that though? Nuns?" Jake asked as they walked up to a car, and the priest opened the backdoor of it.

"They go out in the day, but these men don't come to the kitchens," The priest said, and Jake nodded, as he came back out of the car with arms full of food again, "I don't sleep very well anymore – so I do a few rounds every night. Make sure their bandages are fixed, and they at least have a little something in their stomachs. Sundays I take the extra meat from the kitchen."

"Protein," Jake said, and the priest nodded.

"At least a little bit," He said as he locked up the car again, and they headed the other way down the river way, "Pretty soon, you know them all by name – and they break your heart."

"How so?" Jake asked, taking half of the man's load for him.

"I know all of their names," The priest told him as they walked, "They're not faceless to me. They are men, and they are – I tend to their scratches and their black-eyes. I know when a new man joins their groups, and I know when one of them kills another in a fight. And it breaks your heart. I can't tell you how many times I've cried when I got home at the end of the night. How many times they broke my heart, but I bring them food – and I care for their wounds. All of them. You know why?"

"No," Jake said, and the priest nodded.

"I thought not," He said, taking a deep breath, and he looked up, "Because that's exactly what he does for us. Do you think he sees a difference between you and me? Men who are able to feed themselves, but are still broken on the inside and men who are broken in the street? Do you think that to God you or I are any different from the men in the streets?"

"I don't know about that," Jake said as they reached a small group of about three men, and the priest started handing out bread and water bottles before they kept moving, "It's been a long time before I let myself think about anyone above here."

"That might be your problem."

"No offense – but if there is a God," Jake started pausing, "I don't think he would be very happy with me. I'm better off just not believing that he's there."

"You'd be surprised how many times I've heard that," The Priest replied, "And you know what I say?"

"What?" Jake asked.

"That is the most backwards folly of self-centeredness," The priest told him, "That you and whatever you can manage to do here is too big for him to handle. It's not true. It means that you probably need him the most."

"I've done some pretty awful things," Jake said, knowing that he was downplaying it, and the priest nodded as they headed toward another alley, "I don't know if I can do anything, at this point."

"What made you come out tonight?"

"Hiding from my wife," Jake decided to go with the simplest, if not a complete lie, version of the truth.

"You have a wife?"

"Yeah, she's beautiful – everything I always wanted," Jake replied, and the priest nodded.

"So what's the problem?"

"I stole her."

"From another man?"

"Yeah," Jake replied, and the priest nodded.

"A husband?"

"Essentially," Jake replied, "He would have been if he could have."

"You think she still loves him?"

"She's told me," Jake said, "She told me that she did before we – "

"Is it possible her feelings have changed?" The priest asked, and Jake shook his head.

"Except now, I think she misses the states too," Jake replied, "It was her idea to come over here – to start over –"

"And so you've taken to walking around at night," The priest said, and Jake nodded, "Well, c'mon."

The priest led him the rest of the way over to a group of homeless men who were seeking shelter in an alley between a supermarket and a pub. He encouraged him to help him pass out the bread and the water. Jake looked around, someone else should be handling this – right? Someone who not just wanted to believe what was coming out of his mouth – someone who actually did. But he very slowly started handing out pieces of bread to the men sitting near them, and then handing out water to them. He thought to tell them to sip it, and they nodded as the priest smiled back at him.

"You do this every night?" Jake asked as he walked him back to his car, "I just got normal daylight hours at work."

"I do, I start at St. Paul's at eleven," He said, and Jake nodded, "Can I give you a ride home?"

"No, I'll walk," Jake replied, "I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Son," The priest said, and Jake whipped around.

"Yeah."

"People do the best they can. Not everyone's dealt the same cards," He said, "He sees that."

By the time he made it back to the flat, Olivia was sound asleep in bed. At least there was that. At least she wasn't up on her laptop looking up pictures and videos of Fitz that would inevitably make her cry, and keep her from her sleep. He felt dirt on him, and he went to take a shower before he went and crawled into bed, the fake ring that Rowan had handed him on the plane was nearly choking his finger. So, he took it off and put it on his nightstand before pulling the covers up over his shoulders to go to sleep.

When he woke up in the morning, he could hear Olivia clanging around in the kitchen. It was his late day, which meant that he didn't have to go in for a few hours after Olivia. She was up and bustling around the kitchen getting ready to go, so he got up and went out to get some coffee. He couldn't ever go back to sleep, so he had decided the day before when his boss had changed his hours, he decided that he would take the chance to check out the city. He could try to find something to do for the weekend to cheer her up.

"You were out late last night," Olivia commented as he walked out, and he nodded.

"I – ah, found something to do at night," He said, "You know me, I can't stay still."

"Ok," Olivia replied, and that was the end of the conversation as she headed out to work.

She would have had more questions if Fitz had been the one out until one in the morning without an explanation? She would. And he was jealous – actually jealous – over her lack of jealousy. Though, of course Fitz would have no reason to ever go out until one'o'clock at night. He knew what happened when they were together – he had seen it with his own two eyes. He had seen it when Fitz had sent him home for the night, and he had watched it on his monitors. He had watched her claw at him, and watched as they moved together on just about every surface of her apartment. The way she had tried to drag him into her bedroom, the times that they had woken each other up in the middle of the night. He had seen it all. How they couldn't even pull apart from each other when Cyrus burst into the room. How it took them another hour to cool themselves down enough to take a shower and get dressed. She never wanted him like that. She never would.

He stepped out onto the sidewalk, walking around the city – the images of them rolling around in her bed in DC whirring around in his head until it was time to go to work. And then it was him sitting at a desk, tapping his pen on the edge of a paper just thinking about the way he had pulled her into the shower that night. How he had carried her, the way that she had fit perfectly into his arms, how happy she was with him there. How much he had wanted to blow his own head off that night – how he was pretty sure that Command, Rowan, hadn't done it for him.

"Pearson, you ok, Yank?" Carl asked as he passed his desk, "I think it's your quitting time."

"Is it?" Jake asked, and Carl nodded as Jake looked up at the clock, "Thanks."

He got up and grabbed his coat, heading for the door as he stepped outside. The sun was setting over the whole city, and if he wasn't so distracted he might have thought that it was pretty. He pulled out his phone and flipped through the contacts until he hit 'H' and hit send. He could hear it ringing on the other end as he stepped off the sidewalk and headed towards the center park.

"Yes?" Huck's voice filled his earpiece.

"I need your help," Jake said.

"You're in too deep," Huck taunted him, "You – tricked Liv into running away with you, and now you're having second thoughts. That maybe – she doesn't love you. And you're still taking orders from Command."

"Yeah, I'm in pretty deep," Jake replied, and he heard Huck inhale – the closest thing that he did to laugh.

"Look up," Huck said, and Jake did just in time to see Huck walking across the street – making a b-line for him.

He hung up as Huck sat down next to him on the bench.

"What're you doing here?"

"You think I can't track two people when I knew what day they left?" Huck asked him, "That I wouldn't be able to find her once I figured out what had happened?"

"Fair point," Jake replied as he took a deep breath, "How did you get out?"

"That same way that you did," Huck replied sarcastically, "Olivia got me out. But they could still call me home if they wanted."

"So why haven't they done it?" Jake asked, turning to look at him.

"Because I'm not of much used to them anymore," Huck replied, "I lost my – spark – there for a while, and I never really got it all back."

"Yeah, I get that feeling," Jake said, and Huck nodded.

"You got a – cushy retirement."

"Rowan's here at least once a week," Jake replied, and Huck nodded.

"Well you're still on a mission – technically."

"I want out."

"There is no out," Huck replied, taking a deep rattling breath, "You know that better than I do."

Jake got up, realizing that they had been sitting for much too long. They started to walk down the road a little ways, and Huck didn't say much. Typical Huck.

"So what was it that you wanted?" Huck asked, and Jake swallowed – hard.

"What did you want? Flying all the way over here?"

"I wanted to check in on her," Huck said, "She left quickly – she acted rashly. Now, I can't imagine she's too happy here with you."

"No – she's not," Jake said as they turned a corner, "That's why I was calling. You might understand the position. She might like to see you."

"She doesn't want to see me," Huck said, squinting in the sun.

"I know."

"Who she wants to see has been hiding out for almost three weeks," Huck replied, and Jake nodded.

"That's not helping," Jake said, looking over at him, "It would be better if he was still acting like everything's ok."

"I'll relay the message, but I don't think it'll help," Huck replied, "He thinks she's dead, or in someone's basement. To hear she'd run off with you?"

"It would either light a fire under his ass or send him six feet under," Jake said, and Huck nodded.

"I'd probably bet on the second," Huck said, and Jake nodded as he realized that Huck had walked him to his own flat.

"Have a good night," Huck said, and he kept walking as Jake gave him a strange look.

He shook it off as Huck being Huck, and then headed up the steps to the door. He took a breath, not sure why his chat with Huck had caused him so much stress. He needed one free breath before he walked into Olivia stressing him out even more. He could feel the tension building in his shoulders – forming knots and making everything just a little bit more uncomfortable. He pushed through the door, only to realize that Olivia wasn't home yet. A momentary wave of relief washed over him, until he looked at the oven's clock and realized that she should have been home an hour ago.

"Olivia?" He called loud enough for her to hear him throughout the flat – but there was no response, "Liv!"

There was still no response, and he headed back towards their bedroom. He opened the door, and she was still nowhere to be seen. He was pulling out his phone as he walked back over towards the front of the flat, and the door opened. Olivia walked in, clutching her bag about as close as she could. Another wave of relief rolled over him – and he smiled faintly before realizing the look on her face. He opened his mouth to say something – she didn't allow it. She dropped her bag on the couch and headed right for the kitchen, not bothering to pour her wine into a glass as she headed back and plopped down on the couch.

"Hard day -?"

"Mellie came in today," Olivia explained it in one sentence, screwing open the top of the bottle with a corkscrew, "I'm going to need another one of these."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Now let's backtrack a bit and see some Olivia? I think that this might be my favorite so far… it's definitely one of the ones that I was thinking of when I was first thinking of this story….I'm not naming chapters, but If I were this one might have been titled 'In which Olivia gets her ass handed to her on a platter in five courses' but of course that would be too long, so it's probably a good thing I'm not titling these… enjoy :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Nine

She looked around at the walls, wooden, with stone incorporated in as she sunk into the bed. The window was open letting in the night draft of Vermont air sweep through the room. There were enough pillows on the bed that she wasn't even sure that there was in fact a mattress underneath her. The was no proof, and she wouldn't have put it past him, except she knew that Fitz could never sleep on anything softer than a rock, so she assumed that the pillows were all there for her benefit. That she would be sleeping on them, while he slept next to her on the hard, cold mattress. She turned towards the door, and watched as Fitz walked in, she smiled lightly as he paused to kick off his boots by the door.

"Is this where you've been?" He asked her as he kept walking towards her – sitting down on the edge of the bed with a smirk on his beautiful face.

She reached up and put her hand on the side of his face, feeling the smooth skin, freshly shaved, under her fingertips. It was like softened leather, worn and weathered, and exactly how she remembered it. The memory took her over and she dropped her hand, letting her head fall back onto the pillows. She felt the pillows sink on either side of her, but didn't even have time to look up to see what he was doing before she felt his lips kissing down the side of her neck. Her neck imobilized, all she could do was look up at the ceiling as feel him slip one hand under shirt, holding tight to her stomach and the other own bury itself under her ass. She moaned loudly as she felt him pulling up on her shirt.

Moving so that he could pull it up over her head, she flipped them over so that she was on top of him. She curved her hands over his muscular shoulders, like she could keep him there if he had wanted to move. He let her have her illusion as she ripped the buttons open on his shirt, and kissed his bare chest. Tracing the lines with her finger tips down the lines on his stomach, licking and kissing him until she could hear him starting to lose his patience with her. She could tell because she could feel his hands starting to travel up, his hands slipping underneath the cups of her bra.

She quivered, and he took that as his cue to take back control. He came up, and flipped her back onto her back, laying her down on the pillows carefully. He left a trail of kisses down her shoulder, popping her bra off as he pulled it off of her. Falling to the side, so that he could hold her, she felt his arms wrap around her. The strength in them as he pulled her tight, and the side of her face morphed perfectly to his chest. She reached up, running her fingers back through his curls as she pulled herself up and kissed him. Letting her tongue dart into his mouth – missing how it felt against her's. She could feel him missing her, actively, and her heart started to beat just that much faster as his hands cupped over her ass. Her mouth broke from his for a second, and one of her hands started trailing down. Over his ear, over the indent in his shoulder before he caught her lips with his.

He wasn't ready to let her go that quick, and she was more than willing to linger longer. She ran her hand down his abs, and didn't even bother to pause along his belt. She grabbed him through his jeans as her other hand clung to the back of his hair. The soft curls compressing in her hand, as she stroked him through the pants, until that wasn't good enough anymore. She flipped his belt open, having to bring her other hand down. She could feel him kissing the side of her neck, squeezing her ass as she unzipped him. Pulling his erection out of his jeans - slipping them and his boxers down and over his ass.

"Livy," He whispered as she felt him tugging on her drawstring pants.

"Mmm?"

"I love you."

She froze. The door to the room opened and closed with a slam, and she rolled over in her bed in London. She could see through the open door, even in her almost asleep state that Jake was coming in the door. She rolled her eyes, and then rolled back over to face the window. She closed her eyes, her heart broken as she tried desperately to return to her dream. But she knew that it was gone even before she fell back to sleep. Which made her wake up frustrated. Jake came out to say goodbye to her before she left for work. She felt a little bad, but she wasn't really up for a lot of talk. She casually asked him why he was out so late – but didn't want to make it seem like she didn't want him out of the house before she left for work.

That was almost getting away to work without talking to Jake two days in a row – but she wasn't really too worried about it. Well, she was – she felt like a bitch. But he had known what he had signed on for, right? Except how could he have if she hadn't even known? If she hadn't even known how much it would mess her up to abandon Fitz the way she had. To leave him without a support beam, and just take off for a whole new life that didn't include him. She couldn't even imagine a life without him when she had started – that's why she had left. It no longer gave her the choice to fall back to him. She had to be strong because there was no other choice. He wasn't her's – and she had poisoned herself listening to how one day they would gather it up and move up to Vermont. It wasn't going to happen, and she had had to distance herself from it.

He was a married man, his fairytale card was already filled up. He had his own dragons to slay – and she couldn't ask him to slay her's too. He would never get around to them. The dragon would have swallowed her up and spit out her bones as he went back to protect his family. Not that she was bitter, not that she wanted him to do anything else. But it was the truth.

"Olivia, are you ok?" Her secretary and day planner – her clerk – asked her as she walked into her office.

Olivia didn't answer her – waving it off as she went into her office to wait for her first client of the day. She pulled out the files and folders that she would need all morning – then made the executive decision to skip lunch. She already knew that she wouldn't have the stomach for it – not today. Not any day after something like that. It was like she was set back to the day she had left, like she could feel her heart broken in her chest. Like it was trying to beat, and it was just coming up with lopsided palpitations that would eventually leave her somewhere with not enough oxygen in her blood. But it wasn't like she could really bring herself to fear that happening – it would be a welcome fate as far as she was concerned. She wasn't doing much else now except waiting to die.

"Miss Pearson," Her secretary popped her head into the room, "We have a Miss Anders who'd like to speak with you. She doesn't have an appointment, but you're clear the rest of the day…."

"Of course," Olivia said, looking out her window over the city, the sun was just starting to appear to be coming down, "Send her in."

Olivia went to stashing the other things that were on her desk into her drawers as she heard the close, and she looked up. That was when she saw who had walked in, pulling a hat off of her head, letting her brown hair fall over her shoulders. Olivia's jaw dropped a little bit as Mellie came over and sat down in the chair that was usually for clients.

"Hello, Olivia."

"What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"Huck agreed that we at least had to check in on you," Mellie replied, "He's running interference with your guard dog, so if our chat goes late we don't have to worry about him coming to see you."

"You asked Huck to find me?" Olivia asked, she couldn't believe her ears.

"He didn't need that much help – just a decent computer," Mellie replied, raising her eyebrows, and Olivia was about to say something but Mellie cut across her, "You look well, considering a week ago I thought you were lying in some ditch somewhere. Buried in a shallow grave."

"Mellie – "

"No, I don't think that you really get to speak right now," Mellie said, and Olivia clammed up, "Because I just got on a fucking airplane over here to talk to you. So you are going to sit there, and you are going to keep your pretty little mouth shut. People call me a monster. You think I'm so bad, and I am. I'm not like normal people – but I didn't make him love me. I couldn't. You, you came in riding on a fat assed big white horse and told him everything was going to be ok. People say I'm a monster, I'm the ambitious bitch – I ain't got nothing on you, sweetheart. Wait until his whole world come crashing down around his ears, he finds out why his marriage is broken, his son dies – that's when you choose to take off? Talk about selfish, I think you've won first prize. You took off just in time for him to lose anything – not including our marriage – the presidency with a clean race, his son, you he lost all of that in less than a day. And you took off. You ran away just like you do best."

"I went away so that he didn't have me as a crutch," Olivia said, "I took myself out of the picture so that he could heal his family. I took myself out of the picture so that everything that's happened – so it would stop."

"He chose to be president of the United States," Mellie said coolly, "We chose to put out 'family' right into the spotlight of the world. That gives us enemies. That makes our kids targets for terrorist, political enemies, and the rest of the world. It's the 'con' part of the pro con list of becoming president. The only thing you ever did was make it bare able for him, and then you took it away. You really think that if you were never born your parents wouldn't still be at it like this? I'm assuming that you were a mistake, because what I've heard of your mother doesn't tell me she was big on the idea of being a mother. You were an accident that ended up trying to make the world just a little bit better with all your pretty thinking about second chances."

Olivia sat there frozen.

"You don't think that without you Cyrus, Verna, Hollis and I wouldn't have rigged the election anyway?" Mellie said, "Stop giving yourself so much damn credit – you don't deserve it. You certainly haven't put enough of the work in for it. It's what I've been saying all along. But Saint Olivia Pope always has to know what's right for everyone and then does it all by herself."

"I left because he had to stay with you," Olivia replied, "He couldn't leave after he found out about you. After Jerry? I had to admit the fairytale was over, so I took off so that he could do what he needed to do."

"Are you fucking insane?" Mellie stood up, crossing her arms, "Because I know that Fitz had nothing to do with that discussion. You clearly know nothing of marriages, and this is your god-damned proof. What happened to me, it happened to me – and it happened over fifteen years ago. Our marriage doesn't magically get fixed just because he found out what happened. Maybe it would have helped if he knew right away – but that's on me. And I gladly carry it. Now? The damage is done. I don't want him, he doesn't want me. The only reason we were still dragging it out was because we wanted the White House. Then he didn't want it anymore. And now he understands why we fell apart, and we both knew that it had nothing to do with you. We were arranged, and because of that we were thin. None of this has anything to do with you – but for some reason everything has to be about you, doesn't Liv? The cute little girl trying to run around and make sure that everyone is ok. Making everything about her."

Olivia swallowed, trying to get her bearings.

"…So," Mellie clearly wasn't finished, and Olivia sat back in her chair to let her finish, "I said that you look good, for having been killed and put into a shallow grave, because that's what he thinks happened to you. He's sitting in his room in Santa Barbara thinking that it's his fault, that you were murdered, or kidnapped – and there was nothing that he could have done about it. He keeps replaying it over in his head, the number of times he should have just had the balls to take you and run away. And you're sitting pretty over here. You left him crying on the floor calling for you, and you didn't even think to drop him a damned note? Let him know that this was your grand plan to make him 'do the right thing'. You're a coward. And I'm many things, but that is not one of them. So come home, or don't. But he fucking deserves to know what really happened. You spoiled little bitch."

Mellie got up and left as her words spun themselves around in circles in her head. She could feel her walls and defenses coming up, arguing each little point that Mellie had tried to make about her. It's what she did her whole walk home, until she started to cry. Because she knew that Mellie was right. She sped up on the street, hoping that no one would notice the sobbing mess that was passing by – until she reached a bar that she knew well enough to be able to locate the bathroom without an issue.

She barely made it into the stall before she fell apart, swatting the toilet seat down so that she could sit down. She put her hand up and realized that she was sobbing uncontrollably, holding herself as she tried to pull herself together. She pulled toilet paper out of the roll and dabbing at her eyes – knowing that her make up was running down her face. She let herself go, she let herself fall apart for about another minute. Mellie's words were just bouncing and repeating themselves off the walls of her brain until she stood up – forcing herself not to think about it. She had two more blocks to go before she was back at her flat. What was just worse was that it was in Mellie's voice – that condescending tone and the way she had tried to explain marriage to her.

"Olivia?" Jake asked as she walked into the house, but she didn't register him.

She needed alcohol, lots of alcohol – as much as she could find. As much as she could take until she passed out. She walked over to the wine rack and picked up the biggest, and only bottle that was still there. She collapsed back on the couch, and leaned back, popping the cork out of the bottle before looking over at Jake.

"Mellie came in today," She said, as she finally got the cork out, "I'm going to need another one of these."

"Ok," Jake said, taking his house key out of his pocket and put the ring around his finger, "Anything else?"

"Maybe two," She replied, and Jake nodded.

"Anything you want – this explains Huck, though," Jake said, stopping by the door, "You're going to be ok until get back?"

"How the fuck did they find us, Jake?" Olivia looked up at him as she downed about a fourth of her bottle.

"I don't know," Jake said, "But I'll be right back, ok?"

"Alright," Olivia exhaled before tipping the bottle back again.

Jake left on foot, which meant that he was walking to the liquor store about a block away. She finished the bottle then stood up. There was a bit of a head-rush involved, but she just kept walking towards the kitchen. She opened the door and pulled out one of Jake's beers. Hitting it against the counter first, then grabbing the bottle opener from where it was magnetized to the fridge. She managed to get part of it off, and gave up there. She drank through the partially connected cap. It was cutting at her lip, so she adjusted as she drank it down. It tasted like piss, but it gave her something to do. Jake came back as she was downing her second one, and he put the wine on the counter, behind himself.

"Ok, you need to stop," Jake said as he took half a beer from her, "C'mere."

"Good, you brought my wine," She said as he helped her over to the couch.

"Yeah, why don't we wait on that?" Jake asked as he sat down with her on the couch, and she nodded as she put her head on his chest – closing her eyes and imagining it was Fitz,

Her brain was cloudy, and it didn't even work. She hit him gently on the chest in frustration.

"I made a mistake," Olivia said, into his chest, "I made a mistake and I can't go back."

"Olivia…"

She was losing it – she knew that she was because she was starting to laugh.

"I fucked up everything and I can't go back because my father will kill me – or him, which would be so much worse - and, he would do it."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: So, this chapter's a bit longer, but when I did the outline I didn't realize how long it would take to get the stuff that needed to to happen. So – enjoy this is definitely one of the more enjoyable chapters, too… and not just because it's Fitz…

The Redeemed

Chapter Ten

The next thing Fitz knew after he heard his metal crutch clank against the floor because he had missed, was the feeling of his face being pressed into the cool floor. There was also a slight pressure on his neck and when he turned to see what was happening or got worse. He realized that this was Maya stepping on his neck, and relaxed as if in surrender. There was nothing that he could do from this position anyway as Teddy tried to toddle over to him and Maya held out her hand to stop him getting too close. He pouted and looked up at Maya like he would like very much to kick her - but he was probably more likely to bite her. His tiny little attack toddler - why had they left Hank in DC? Because he was Jerry' s dog, they had gotten him for his birthday one year, that was why they left him.

"Don't worry, baby," She said, "Daddy's ok, see? We're just playing, right Fitz?"

"Right," Fitz made a smile to Teddy but he started to fuss anyway.

"Hal' s going to come in and check on you in a minute," she said quickly, "So when I let go of you, you're going to get up and sit back in your chair. You're going to have him take your adorable son out of the room and you are not going to tell him that I am here, got it?"

"And if I don't?" Fitz asked as Teddy started to cry and Maya nearly lifted him up into his chair again.

"Her father lied to you, which you should be realizing about now - seeing as I'm standing in front of you," Maya said as Teddy's crying started to get a little bit louder, "I'll tell you the truth. And If you don't believe that, then maybe you think I'll kill you - at least then you won't have to stare at that cliff all day."

"Mr. President?" Hal called and Fitz turned around as Maya disappeared into the shadows - somewhere.

"C'mere," Fitz said to both Teddy and Hal, he scooped Teddy up and calmed him, let him see he was fine.

"Sir?" Hal asked as he appeared by his side, "What's going on?"

"I got frustrated and threw my crutch at the wall," Fitz didn't miss a beat, "The noise scared him. Can you take him away for a little while? When Marta gets back have her feed him dinner and get him ready for bed."

"Yes, sir," Hal said as Fitz kissed the top of the boy's head before passing him off.

Hal put the toddler on his hip and then went over and grabbed Fitz's crutch to return it to him. He put it under his arm where he sat, but didn't really make any other movements as Hal took Teddy out of the room. Fitz then took a deep breath as he listened for Hal' s footsteps to taper out and the door to be shut. The second that he heard it close he saw Maya coming back out from where she had hidden herself.

"That's a good boy," She said, pulling a chair over very quietly and sitting down, pulling her legs up to the side - Olivia had sat like that sometimes, "Fitz, you don't mind if I call you Fitz, do you Mr. President? I mean you have been sleep in with my daughter for the better half of five years."

"It's fine," Fitz replied as he took a square jawed breath, and Maya smiled – it sent chills down his spine.

"The first thing you should know about me – I don't target Children," Maya spoke quickly, almost quicker than her daughter, "If they happen to be in the area of something larger, well, that's a bad byproduct. But I would never actually harm a child specifically. I'm a bit above that. What happened to your older son – I am sorry. But I am hoping that it will motivate you to help me protect my child."

"What're you talking about?" Fitz asked her, furrowing his brow.

"Eli – Rowan – whatever the hell you know him as, he's the one who killed your son," Maya said, and Fitz's brow was now encroaching on his sight, "He set it up like I had done it – but really. I would never steal it from a National Lab – it's too messy, and frankly I'm too lazy for it. I would have bought something cheap abroad. And If I had stolen it from the lab, then I would have had it duplicated. They have sensors on those things. Eli, however, would have been able to walk right in and grab it off the shelf. Especially when you put his second in command in control of his old organization. He was always in charge. Always several steps in front of the President. That's why I married him, not Reagan."

"So what's your point?" Fitz said, "Liv's gone. Wait – he captured you – I saw the pictures."

"He captured me, but Eli for some reason won't kill me – yet," Maya replied, "He did throw me into a hole, though."

"How did you get out of there?"

"A friend."

"A friend?"

"A friend who also told me what happened after Eli woke up in the hospital," Maya replied, "She left of her own accord, Fitz. Or at least that's what she thought she was doing when Eli tricked her into leaving, and starting over somewhere new."

"Where is she?" Fitz asked, and Maya shook her head.

"I only have so much time," Maya said, "That detail is nearly common knowledge if you know who to ask."

"Wha-"

"I'm here to ask you if you'll help me," Maya said, "Because I'm thinking right now you might want some revenge."

"Revenge?" He asked, and nodded.

"Revenge on Eli – and maybe, I can help you get Livy back."

"From a woman who was trying to kill me?" Fitz questioned, and Maya shook her head.

"Honey, as soon as I realized how much Livy loved you, there was no way I was going to let anything happen to you. How do you think they found the bomb at the church before you left to go?" Maya replied and Fitz wasn't sure that he believed her, "I just want my baby girl to be happy – and out of this mess. And I know that you love her enough to help me."

"Help you?"

"Get her back from her father," Maya said, and Fitz perked up.

"Her father told me that he didn't know where she went."

"Her father also told you that I was the one who killed your son," Maya told him, and Fitz leaned back, "Her father basically is holding her hostage with his second hand man standing 'guard' ready to strike when it helps him the most."

"Jake?" Fitz said, not believing his ears, "She went away with Jake?"

"She was confused," Maya told him, "And really? I'm telling you the woman you love is in danger and you're getting hung up on the fact that her father sent her away with a man that she moderately likes? What the hell is the matter with you?"

"Sorry," Fitz replied.

"Anyway, I have a plan," Maya told him, "I just want to make sure that you're ready to go along with it. It has a pretty hefty price, but I think in the end – Livy will finally be safe."

"She only used to ever let me call her that," Fitz said, and Maya turned her head to the side just a little bit.

"That's because it's what I used to call her when she was little," Maya said, sounding more like a mother than the terrifying human being that she was.

"Ok, so what's this plan?"

"We don't have much more time," Maya said, looking at her phone, "Marta will be bringing Teddy back any minute. You need to make sure your children are safe. Send them somewhere away for the week. I need to know where you're going to send them, now."

"Mellie's parents," Fitz said, "They live in Florida now – a retirement area."

"That should work – I'll keep an eye on them," Maya said, and Fitz nodded, "There's no reason for any more innocents to die. I've taken the liberty of changing the name of ownership on the house in Vermont. It'll be crucial that Eli doesn't find out about it."

"It was in Livy's name," Fitz said, and Maya nodded.

"Which is why it's a miracle he doesn't know about it," Maya replied, and Fitz furrowed his brow, "It's going to be tough but – I have to go. I'll explain the rest once you get to Washington. Come to this address."

She slipped a small piece of paper into his hand and he was about to call her back when he heard the door open behind him. He turned around to see her walking in with a freshly fed, bathed, and combed Teddy toddling behind her, grasping her hand tight as he walked over towards him.

"He wanted to say good night to you before he went to bed," Marta told him as he got up, situating himself with his crutch before heading to meet them in the middle of the room.

"I'll bring him to bed," Fitz said, "I just can't lead him up there."

"I've got it," Marta said, picking Teddy up and putting him up on her hip as they headed towards the stairs, "Do you need any help?"

"No, I should be ok," Fitz replied, after all he had walked on it for a good ten to fifteen minutes after breaking it, "It might just take me a few minutes."

"Sir?"

"Yeah, Marta?" Fitz said as he handed her his crutch and was working on getting up the stairs by pressing his hand against the wall instead.

"It's good to see you up again, Sir," She said, and Fitz looked back at her, still without a smile.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Daddy!" Teddy just about shouted as the three of them reached the top of the stairs.

Fitz had been about to reach back to get his crutch back from Marta, but paused instead. He looked down at the little guy who was reaching up for him. Fitz leaned down, wincing as he put more weight than he should have on his foot to pick the child up. Teddy nuzzled himself right up against his shoulder. Fitz kissed the top of his head as the toddler wrapped his little arms as best he could around him. Pain shot up from his heel as he hobbled towards Teddy's room.

"Sir, should you be – "

"I'm carrying my son to bed," Fitz told her – maybe a little bit more angry than it needed to be, "I can manage. You can wait out here if you like."

"Ok," Marta said as Fitz carried Teddy into his room and set him down into his crib.

He leaned on the side of the crib for support. The more time passed the more his ankle hurt, and the more he realized that he should probably take Hal up on the offer for some pain medications. Before he slept anyway, but right now Teddy was standing with his hands on the bars of his crib, like he was planning a jailbreak, and Fitz managed to kiss his forehead.

"I love you, buddy," Fitz told him, "And I'm sorry about all this crap. I'm sorry you're not going to get to know your brother. But I promise you, that you're going to be ok, alright? You and your sister are going to be fine. If it's the last thing I do, you two are going to be safe. And you're going to be happy, ok?"

"Dad," Teddy said, reaching up and putting his hand on Fitz's cheek.

"Yeah, and you're going to have me, too," Fitz said, taking his little hand and kissing that too," I promise, buddy. Daddy's not going to stay in bed anymore. I'm gonna fix it."

"Story," Teddy said and Fitz picked up the book near his bed, and Teddy curled up with his pillow and blanket.

"And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, By Doctor Seuss," Fitz started by reading the title.

Teddy was asleep before he hit the middle of the story, but he kept reading until it was done. He tucked him in, wrapping his blanket around him a little better, then hobbled back out towards the door. Marta came running over and helped him get his crutch back under his arm. He walked out into the hall with her and closed Teddy's door so that he wouldn't hear in his sleep.

"Marta," Fitz said as she walked with him, "I need you to do me a favor."

"What's that?" She asked as Hal walked over to them.

"I need you to pack up the kids' things," Fitz said, looking around him at hallway, "Teddy needs a bag, and so does Karen. Pack one for yourself, too. I'm going to send them to Mellie's parents' in the morning, and it's up to you whether you want to go with them."

"Sir – these kids, I couldn't leave them," She said, and Fitz nodded solemnly.

"Alright, so pack up for yourself too," Fitz said, turning to Hal, "I need them to have tickets on a commercial flight. And I need you to find an agent to go with them. Someone you trust to stay with them. I want them dressed in plain clothes, all of you. I don't want a big fuss."

"Incognito, gotcha boss," Hal replied, and Fitz nodded.

"Marta, would you mind going and doing that now?" He asked her and Marta nodded, "I need a private word with Hal."

"Hal," Fitz said as he started walking towards his own bedroom, Hal following him closely, "You're coming with me. I'm going to need Air Force One ready to go just after the kids get on the plane to Florida. I need to get back to DC, immediately. But I don't need everyone and their mother to know about it, you got me?"

"Yes, sir," Hal told him, "I'll handle all the arrangements myself."

"Thanks, Hal," Fitz said and Hal nodded as they stopped outside his door, "All of this is really important, I promise."

"I understand sir," Hal said, and then smiled a little bit.

"It's not a smiling matter, Hal."

"I know, sir," Hal said, but was still smiling anyway, "It's just good to have you back, sir."

"I wouldn't say that so quickly."

Fitz didn't say anything else as he propelled himself into his bedroom and went to his closet. He started throwing a few things into his bag, and then froze. She had run away with Jake. She was tricked into it, and she had probably – like always – thought what she was doing was best. But… She had run away with Jake. After all the times he had offered to run away with her, after all the times that she had told him that she couldn't do that. That they couldn't do it. He kicked the dresser, not having enough conscious thought to realize that he was going to use his already injured foot. Hot tears stung the backs of his eyes as he got – clumsily – back to his bed and sat on the edge of it. He took a pillow that he had sat on and threw it across the room – it hit a bookshelf in a puff of feathers.

She left with Jake. She left with Jake to start over. He laid back on the bed, knowing that he should get some sleep. She left with Jake. It just kept cycling through his head. Those four words just repeating themselves in his head as he stared up at the ceiling fan. The light in the room was still on, but he didn't have the energy or the desire to even attempt to get up and shut the light off. He just left it on as the words repeated themselves again, they echoed through his head and he punched the mattress next to himself. He breathed in, and tried to think about how it shouldn't be the main issue. He tried to remember Maya chastising him for something that Olivia's father had clearly cooked up. But it was salt in the wound, and he couldn't push it out of his head. He wasn't wired that way. He was a jealous guy, he always had been.

"Sir," Hal stepped into his room at exactly eight the next morning, "Karen's arrived home, and we're getting ready to bring them to the airport."

"Why didn't you wake me earlier?" Fitz asked him as he rolled out of bed and grabbed his crutch.

"Because you needed to sleep – you only fell asleep about three hours ago," Hal told him, "Don't worry, they're waiting downstairs for you to say bye to them."

"Thanks," Fitz said as he headed downstairs – still in his clothes from the day before.

He got downstairs and Karen, Marta, and Teddy were standing by the door. He took a deep breath when he saw the look on Karen's face.

"Daddy, what's going on?"

"Trust me, Karen," Fitz said as he walked over, giving her a hug, "I wouldn't be sending you away if I didn't think it was best. I promise, it's for a good reason. It won't be long, a week, tops. Then I'll come and get you."

"Promise?" Karen said, and Fitz nodded.

"There's just a few things that I need to get squared away," Fitz told her as Marta brought Teddy up so Fitz could hug him too.

That was when he noticed which agent Hal had called in to go with the kids. It was Micah, and Fitz had to stop himself from letting out some sort of cry. Micah had been Jerry's personal agent, and the last time that he had seen him was at Jerry's funeral. He and Fitz had carried the coffin all on their own, from the church to the hearse, which Micah had insisted on driving, to the plot in the cemetery. From what Fitz had understood, Micah had had to take a leave of absence after the funeral, and he understood why. He had been a sobbing mess from the moment that it had been released to the agents what had happened. He had been off for the night, because they were with the Presidential detail. He had also met the ambulance at the hospital, pushed the gurney himself.

"Micah," Fitz said, nodding to him – his voice a little higher than usual.

"I've got this, sir," Micah said, his chest swollen, and Fitz nodded.

"I don't doubt you," Fitz said, and Micah swallowed, "It's ok."

Micah led the kids out to the car, and Fitz turned to face Hal.

"There's no one on this earth besides you or me that will work harder to keep those kids safe," Hal told him, and Fitz nodded, "You ready to go, sir?"

"Yeah," Fitz's voice cracked.

"Your bag's already in the car, sir."

"Ok, let's go," Fitz said, and he followed him out the door towards the car.

Hal helped him into the back, and then got into the drivers' seat. It was a short drive to the carrier where they kept the plane when he was in California. And he sat back in his seat for the first five minutes.

She had left with Jake.

The thought popped back into his mind like poison, and he wanted to throw something again. He tapped the back of Hal's seat.

"Turn the car around," Fitz ordered him, and Hal stopped, giving him a look.

"Sir?"

"I said turn around, Hal," Fitz said as Hal did as he was told.

"Sir?"

"What's the weather look like?" Fitz said.

"Today's high is fifty," Hal said, and Fitz gave him an eye roll.

"Across the country – what's it look like?"

"Rain in Texas," Hal replied, "Michigan, and Rhode Island. Everywhere else is fine."

"C'mon," Fitz hopped out onto the driveway, propelling himself towards the two car garage, and Hal was looking confused.

"Sir?" Hal said.

"There's something I have to do," Fitz said as he hit the code for the door to open – it hadn't been for years, "You're coming with me."

"Where are we going, sir?" Hal asked as the door went up, "Oh, Holy hell."

The door finished going up, and revealed a small airplane. Actually, it was the biggest one that he could fit in the garage. When he was governor he had flown it around – taking up disabled kids and stuff like that. When he became president it was a huge taboo that he could fly planes unless it was used for political gain.

"Sir – "

"I'm going up," Fitz said, "Are you coming with me?"

"Sir."

"Hal?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Send the plane to DC. We're going to make a detour."

Within twenty-four hours, Fitz was standing outside the house in Vermont, looking up at it. He had landed the plane in the backyard. It was a pain in the ass to go that way, having to stop every few hours to check everything and refuel, but he had made it. Hal was standing somewhere behind him. He was entirely sure that Hal had thought that he lost it, but he was a damned good flyer, he always had been. He picked up the axe he had taken from the barn.

She left with Jake. It was like a mantra now, repeating in his head on a loop – it was the only way that he had managed to fly through the night. He had to make five stops, but he made it. And now he was standing in front of the house with an axe in hand. Anger was pulsing through him, and he wanted to tear the whole place down. He walked in through the back sliding door and into the kitchen. To the fridge, where he pulled out a beer, and then sat down on the sheet covered couch instead.

He couldn't do it. He had flown so far, and he was sitting there – and he couldn't do it. If he did it – he raised the axe towards the coffee table in front of him. He tried to bring the anger that had been raging inside of him just a minute ago when he was standing outside, and it just wasn't there.

"Sir?" Hal asked, and Fitz took a deep breath.

"It doesn't even matter," Fitz said, more to himself as he looked around at the house, "It doesn't even fucking matter. I can't – "

"Sir," Hal said, and Fitz turned around to see him.

"Beautiful house," He barely had time to register who was standing next to him before he heard Mellie's voice, "The plane landed empty in DC. No one knew where you were – I had a hunch."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Ah, so this is more wrapping up lose ends and then – things.. enjoy :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Eleven

"Huck," Mellie said as they walked out of the airport and into the DC airport, causing him to stop and walk back over to her as she pulled her burner phone out of her pocket.

At least that was what she was calling it – the tiny little thing that barely worked. Huck had brought them along, and Mellie had agreed to use them, because he told her that they would make it easier to talk without having to scramble signals. She really had no idea what that was, but she just decided to go with it, because it wasn't that much of an inconvenience. The only problem was working the damn thing. She hit the little ancient green send button, but nothing happened. She slapped the back of it with her hand, and then pulled the phone up to her ear. Huck paused on the sidewalk beside her, so that he could wait for her.

"Hello?"

"Mel," Andrew's voice filled her ear, "Did you land ok?"

"Just got out of the airport," She said, taking a deep breath, "What's going on? We'll be back in five – maybe ten minutes."

"We have a problem," Andrew told her, and she sighed heavily, "Air Force One landed a half an hour ago, and no one was on it. Fitz was supposed to be on it – the agents on board said he punked out and headed off somewhere with Hal. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?"

"He went of his own accord?" Mellie asked, looking up at the sky and pressing the toe of her shoe into the sidewalk.

"They said he had Hal turn the car around," Andrew said, "And his plane's missing from the Ranch in Santa Barbara. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?"

"Yeah," Mellie sighed as she looked over at Huck, "I'll take care of it – he'll be in DC in twelve hours. Where are my kids?"

"Sorry?"

"If Fitz left Santa Barbara and went off in his little plane with Hal, where are my kids?" Mellie asked, and there was silence.

"We were told that they were behing sent somewhere safe," Andrew replied, "Micah was dispatched to go and meet them last night."

"Ok," Mellie replied.

"Mel, you're sure you know – "

"I wish I didn't," Mellie replied, and hung up the phone, turning to Huck, "C'mon."

"Where are we going?" Huck asked as he followed her back into the airport.

"We're going to drag Romeo's ass back to DC," Mellie retorted, and Huck grabbed her cell phone, "What're you doing?"

"Your phone's compromised."

"It's – "

"He's probably listening to Andrew's phone," Huck replied, "You did good – you didn't give anything away."

Mellie watched as Huck took her phone apart and then handed her the phone without the battery. She gave him a weird look, then grabbed it back. She put the battery back in it, and gave him a little smile as she looked around behind her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Huck asked.

"Wait a minute," She replied, waiting for someone to wheel up next to her – before she dropped it into the passing woman's purse.

"You're evil," Huck said, and she shrugged.

"They'll get where they're going and turn it on," She shrugged as they got in line for tickets, "Trust me, no woman can find anything in a bag that big – half the time you don't even know what you're carrying."

"We have to blend in," Huck told her, "The signal still told him where you are."

"We'll be on a plane in two hours," Mellie replied, gesturing up at the board, and a plane that was set to leave for Vermont, "Once we're passed security it will be easier to hide."

There wasn't much more discussion past that, especially once they had gotten their tickets. They went through security about fifty people apart, and then sat on opposite ends of the terminal. In fact, Huck sat in another section, but where they could see each other. She got the feeling that it was because it would be a whole lot harder for anyone to find them if they were separated. She took a deep breath as they announced boarding, but she really wasn't paying attention – even when she got up to get into line to board the plane. They were in the clear, and she wasn't even worried about being caught anymore. They had seen that they were at the airport, but they had said they were going to the White House. It would have been much easier to find them once they got there.

She was almost hoping that this wasn't where Fitz had gone, that he wasn't quite that morbid. She would have thought that the house he had built her was the last place he would want to be. The house in the woods that he had built for his lover, the house where he had put all his pretty hopes and dreams about them being able to run away together. He didn't know that she knew about it, but how could she not? Did he really think that she had bought that he was spending his weekends at Camp David even after Olivia had left the first time? He had been there, building a mansion. She hadn't seen it yet, she hadn't bothered. When she found out she had assumed that it would taper out. That at some point he would realize that he wasn't in his right mind. But then he never did, and then there was that night he had gone to 'New Hampshire' – that's when she knew that he was bringing Olivia to see it. That night. The betrayal – that he would want to through the White House away to go and live in the woods with his precious Olivia. The White House. The Presidency. She couldn't understand how people could lose sight of what was really important.

"The plane's in the backyard," Huck said, walking back to where she was sitting in the car Huck may have 'found'.

"Oh, Fitz," Mellie breathed as she got out of the car.

The house was nothing like she expected. It looked – amazing. It was beautiful, right down to the plants and the landscaping, and she knew the amount of time that he had put into it. She walked around the back, and could see his plane – the stupid thing – sitting in almost behind a tree. Like he could hide a fucking plane in the woods so that maybe no one would see it – it may have been small, but it was an airplane.

"Mrs. Grant," Hal said as he walked up behind her.

"Where is he?" Mellie asked.

"He's inside, he went in the back."

"Thank you, Hal."

"Ma'am," Hal stepped up to stop her, running to walk backwards between her and the house, "I don't think it's a good idea to go in there right now. He's – angry, and this isn't your place. It's Miss Pope's. You can't go waltzing in there…"

"Miss Pope walked right into every one of my homes…"

"Ma'am," Hal stopped her, his back right up against the sliding door – she looked up at the house again.

It was huge – how many bedrooms did he think they were going to need?

"Hal," Mellie said warningly, "I understand that you think this might piss him off, but I have always known exactly what kind of fire he needs under his ass to get things done. I may not do it the same as Miss Pope…"

"Ma'am, no disrespect," Hal said, "But he flew all night – I think there is a sufficient fire under his – ass. I don't know how – but…"

"Is there?" Mellie gestured over his shoulder, where Fitz was sitting on the couch – staring off into nothingness – his hand limp on an axe.

"Fine," Hal said, opening the door and letting her into the house, "Sir?"

Fitz mumbled to himself.

"Sir."

Fitz looked like hell when he turned around and saw them walking over to where he was sitting, and he stood up. Balancing carefully on a crutch, she noticed that he had a bandaged up leg, but the sound of the axe hitting the ground was a little more distracting. He stood there for a minute, like he didn't even know that he was standing, and Mellie rolled her eyes, Hal nodded.

"Beautiful house," She said snarkily, attempting to pull him back to reality, "The plane landed empty in DC. No one knew where you were – I had a hunch."

"I'm sure you did," Fitz retorted with a comment old Fitz would have made, but any sort of attitude or tone was gone from it – he was different.

"Hal, why don't you leave us alone for a minute," Mellie told him politely, and Hal headed right out the back door, "You know I was wrong, when I said if she died that day, when I said you would build her a shrine. You already have. This place is great – "

"You shouldn't be here," Fitz said, and Mellie could see his temper rising – good.

"Why? Has she not seen it yet?"

"She's seen it."

"Oh – that's going to make what I have to tell you so much worse," She told him, and he rolled his eyes, "Except somehow I think you might already know. She's with Jake."

"Yeah," Fitz replied, his voice a low grumble.

"How'd you know?" Mellie asked him, and he shrugged.

"You get a feeling," He lied, and she looked over behind him, stepping so that the axe was clearly in her view.

"Do you?"

"She doesn't love him," Fitz said, and Mellie nodded, "It doesn't matter. She wasn't thinking right."

"I'm sure you have to believe that," Mellie replied, and Fitz rolled his eyes, "But I think you might actually be right. Liv's always been – a little commitment phobic."

"I don't think that really has anything to do with what's going on," Fitz said, and Mellie took a step back, "And she has had every right to – "

"Amazing, you're still sticking up for her."

"What do you want?"

"I want you back in DC."

"It would only be a temporary arrangement," Fitz told her, wincing as he reached down and picked the axe up so it wasn't resting on the ground, "You know just as well as I do that the President can't just run away for three weeks and come back. They'll be expecting my resignation, and I'm going to give it to them."

"I didn't expect anything less," Mellie shot back, taking a dainty sigh, "What's with the axe? You were going to use it?"

"I was angry, now it's been redirected."

"You can't even…" Mellie narrowed her gaze, "You can't even hate her, can you?"

"I hated her for the past twenty-four hours –that's enough for a lifetime," Fitz replied as he put the axe gingerly onto the couch – where it wouldn't do any damage.

"You're sick."

"I'd rather be me than you," Fitz replied, and Mellie nodded.

"I don't doubt it."

"But you win anyway," Fitz continued, "You get to be First Lady all over again. We can twist it to make it ok that you're his first lady. I mean, you always have been."

"I haven't," Mellie told him, and Fitz nodded, "But let's be honest, I've never been yours."

"True," Fitz said, taking a breath and looking around at the living room, "You really shouldn't be here."

"I'll be on my way," Mellie said, "I just wanted to make sure you haven't lost sight of what's really going on."

"Oh, I haven't," Fitz said, "Olivia, number one. I'll get you the papers as soon as I can."

"You might want to wait til after you retire," Mellie said, and Fitz nodded.

"It won't matter by the time they're signed," Fitz said, "They'll need updating."

Mellie smiled to herself and turned on her heel, heading back towards the back door before turning back around. Fitz seemed upset that she had stopped where she did.

"Where are the kids?"

"With your parents," Fitz said, "They're safe, and away from the mess."

Mellie nodded a little more, then headed out the door, going out to the driveway. That had almost been too easy, like he had been on board before she had even showed up. She had gotten what she wanted, and there really was no point in thinking too hard about it. If it was going to be a problem, she would manage it once they were all back in DC. Once they were all safe back locked up in the White House, and they weren't out in the open like sitting ducks. She nodded to Huck as she walked over, and he popped the door open for her.

"You get what you want?" Huck asked, and Mellie nodded.

"I always do," She replied, and Huck rolled his eyes.

She didn't give it too much thought, she was plenty comfortable with not being the most popular with people as long as she was getting things done. She honestly couldn't give a chicken's shit about whether the homeless turned hacker torturer thought about her as long as he got her back to the airport, and back to DC without a huge fuss. The only reason that he was even useful after he had found Olivia was the fact that he knew when to throw out phones, and what types of things that Olivia's father would be looking for. He knew how to get through airport security without raising alarms with their fake passports, and that was that. She chatted politely with the attendants, and then they were driving their way through DC.

"Lauren," Mellie said as she walked into the lobby outside Andrew's office.

"Yes, Mrs. Grant?" She asked, and Mellie breathed in, "Make sure that the secret service clears the back, the President is going to be flying his own plane in."

"You found him?"

"I did," Mellie said, "He should get here no later than just before dawn, got it?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Lauren replied, and Mellie walked into the Oval Office.

"There you are," Andrew said, and Cyrus was stewing in near silent anger on the other side of the room.

"I'm tired," Mellie said, "But Fitz will be here by morning."

"You found him?" Andrew asked, and Mellie nodded.

"He went for a little joy ride," Mellie said, because it was just downright embarrassing that he had built a house for her, even if she didn't care too much about it herself, "Like I said he'll be here soon. Because clearly, I have to do everything myself around here. While you two sit pretty over here, just sitting around on your asses while I do the real work."

"What you did was stupid, and –" Cyrus started to scream.

"Cy, that's enough," Andrew cut him off, "What she did was brave."

"What she did was stupid! So, incredibly stupid, and careless – and Dangerous – for everyone involved," Cyrus rambled.

"That's enough, Cyrus," Andrew shouted, and Mellie was taken a little off guard, "I will not have you getting all hot an bothered about something that she's done. She got back, and everyone's safe. There's no reason to get so upset. I'm guessing you made contact?"

"I did the best I could," Mellie replied, and Andrew nodded.

"It's greatly appreciated."

Cyrus threw his hands up in frustration, and stormed out of the office. Mellie watched him go, and was trying to figure out just what was wrong with him before Andrew came over and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Fitz is going to resign," Mellie said as Andrew pressed his nose to her temple.

"Good," Andrew said, and Mellie nodded as he leaned in and kissed her, "Why don't we head over to the residence?"

"We should," Mellie smiled as she leaned in and kissed him, "But I have to stop by my office first."

"I'll see you in the bedroom then," Andrew whispered, before heading out the door ahead of her.

She smiled to herself as she walked out of the office, nodding to Lauren before heading down the hall. She wasn't even paying attention to what was going on as she opened her office door and shut it behind her. She got over to her desk not bothering to turn on the light, humming to herself lightly until the lights turned on. Tom was standing in front of her desk. She jumped.

"Ma'am," Tom said.

"Tom, you scared the hell out of me," She said.

"Sorry, Ma'am," Tom said, "But you're going to have to come with me."

"Sorry?" Mellie said, leaning on her desk as she looked up at him.

"He said, that you're going to have to come with us," A voice she didn't recognize came stepping out from near the closed door – it chilled her bones, "Madame First Lady, you shouldn't be shocked. Come quietly, and – well, I promise it will be much cleaner."

"I don't think that's going to happ—"

She was barely conscious to hear the thud as her body hit the floor.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Hey guys, thanks for the support on this one... hope you all like the chapter... it should give you an idea of what's coming...

The Redeemed

Chapter Twelve

There was no point in going home. He had orchestrated that James' sister take Ella with her on a trop to France for a couple of weeks. By orchestrated, he had told her that he was feeling overwhelmed being a single parent with his type of job. That he was concerned Ella wasn't getting enough family time – which was when he offered to send her along with her Aunt. Whatever the effort, at least there was a little distance between her and the central base of B613. He knew there were agents abroad, but it made him feel just a little bit better. He could breathe a little easier, even if it was a false sense of security. He was still paying Anna to show up at the house every morning and wait to leave until he got home. Just on the off chance that Rowan didn't see her name fly by on the list of people leaving the country. He knew it was stupid, but it was his only hope.

"Cyrus!"

It was about nine'o'clock when Andrew walked into his office. He assumed that he was about to get a lashing for insulting his dear Mellie before – and he rolled his eyes. It really made him sick to his stomach – like he had eaten one too many jelly beans. He looked up from his desk, preparing to defend himself when he spotted the look on Andrew's face. He looked lost, and his hair was going about eight different ways. Cyrus recognized the look, and his stomach dropped out.

"What happened?" Cyrus asked, getting up from his desk.

"Mel – she's – "

"She's what, Andrew?" Cyrus asked, and Andrew just ran his hand across his forehead, "Andrew!"

"She's gone," Andrew said, eyes pen wide, and Cyrus was already halfway down the hallway.

He was flanked with secret service agents by the time he hit the end of the hall, and he could hear Andrew coming up the hall behind him. He got to Mellie's Office, and it was almost like a crime scene, Huck rooting around looking for clues like he was Sherlock Holmes or something. Cyrus looked around the room for about a second before he turned around. Daniel was standing in the doorway, and Andrew was very quickly melting down into a puddle in the corner of the room. He walked over to Daniel.

"Sir?"

"I want the White House under Lock-down," Cyrus lowered his voice as he spoke, Daniel nodded, "No one in or out. And I'm going to need the security tapes from when the First Lady was last seen. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes sir," Daniel replied, "I'll pull the alarm, and then I'll call down to the tape room. You can watch them in here."

"Can we get them in the Oval?" Cyrus said as he looked back over at Andrew.

"Of course, sir," Daniel nodded, and Cyrus ducked his head to him as Daniel took off down the hall.

"Andrew, get up," Cyrus said waving to him as he headed out into the hallway, pausing in the open door, "Huck, you too."

Huck nodded, going over and helping Andrew out of the room as they headed back down the hall towards the Oval Office. He opened the door, and held it for Andrew and Huck to file into the office. He then looked over to Lauren – who looked terrified.

"Lauren?"

"Sir?" Her voice quaked, "I just got a call that we're on lock down?"

"Go into my office," Cyrus told her, "Lock the door, you'll be fine."

"Thank you, sir," Lauren said, and he nodded as he followed Huck and Andrew inside, shutting the door behind them.

"Did Mellie say anything about going anywhere?" Cyrus asked the two of them as he went in, and sat down on the couch, Andrew shook his head, "Anywhere at all?"

"No," Huck said, "She said she wanted to get back here. She thought it was safe here."

"Alright," Cyrus said, taking a deep breath, "If what I think has happened actually has happened, we can't let it get out. We have to come up with a cover."

"Excuse me?" Andrew accused.

"We cannot allow the country to know that the First Lady was snatched right out of her office in the White House," Cyrus said, and Andrew shifted uncomfortably, "The American people cannot take that right nw. Not when churches are exploding, people don't know what's going on, and the President is already AWOL."

"Let's find out what happened, first," Andrew said, and Cyrus exchanged looks with Huck, "How are you two so – "

"Because that's what happens when you screw around with these people," Cyrus said, and Huck leaned back, looking up at the ceiling instead of at anyone else, "You disappear. You get in their way, and they take you out. Mellie flew across the Atlantic…"

"Enough," Andrew said, putting up a hand like he couldn't hear anymore.

"Sir," Daniel said, walking in carefully with a laptop and a disc in hand.

"Thank you Daniel," Cyrus said as he walked over and took it from him.

"Sir, there's something you need to know – we've gone off lock down," He said, and Cyrus furrowed his brow, "She left voluntarily, sir. She walked right out the back door."

"What?" Cyrus asked, and Daniel nodded.

"She had Tom and some other guy with her."

Tom. And some other guy.

"Thank you, Daniel," Cyrus said, taking a deep breath, "But for the time being, I'd like you to restrict Tom's access."

"Sir, that's not – "

"I know he's above you," Cyrus said, "But I need you to make the call for me. If he comes within fifty feet of this place I want him arrested."

"Yes, sir. Hal called, he and the President will be arriving shortly.

"Thank you, Daniel. Make sure he doesn't know anything before he gets here. And when he lands, make sure he comes right here.

Daniel nodded, walking out of the room.

"What the hell's going on, Cy?" Andrew looked relieved, "He just told you she's fine. She's with Tom."

"Andrew," Cyrus said warningly, and Huck looked over at him, nodding

"What?" Andrew asked as he recognized the grim looks on both Cyrus and Huck's faces.

"Why don't we watch the tape?" Cyrus asked, opening the laptop and putting it on the coffee table as they all gathered around it.

They had given them the tape from the hallway, and there was a jerk behind Cyrus' stomach as he realized just who the third person was. Rowan was leading the way down the hall, Mellie and Tom behind him as they marched her down the hall. He took a sharp breath as Rowan looked straight at the camera, and gave a little smirk that told him that he wanted them to know. He wanted them to know that he personally had come for Mellie, and he had taken her without any sort of issue. Without any sort of hold up. He had the balls to just waltz right in, and take what he wanted. He could have easily destroyed the camera's made himself invisible, there had been no rush. But he wanted them to know. The tape stopped at the end of the hall, and Cyrus looked over his shoulder at Huck, who was leaning against the back of the couch.

"You see that?" Cyrus said, and Huck nodded.

"What?" Andrew asked, and Huck rewinded it to the smirk.

"That's Olivia's father," Huck said, pointing to the screen, and Andrew's eyes went wide like he couldn't believe his ears, "Eli Pope. Rowan. Command."

"He was here? Tom – "

"Tom's an agent," Cyrus said, and Huck affirmed it with a nod.

"Command always has someone," Huck added, and Andrew looked to them both.

"What does this mean?"

"It means," Cyrus said, taking a deep breath.

"If we ever see Mellie Grant again, it'll either be a miracle – or she'll be dead. Or maybe even both," Huck finished for him, and Cyrus nodded.

"What time is it?" Huck asked as he checked his watch.

"Almost eleven," Cyrus said, and he swallowed hard, "Are the kids going to be coming with Fitz?"

"No," Andrew croaked, "His plane that he has in Santa Barbara only carries three. And there's no way to secure the baby."

"Ok," Cyrus said, as he took a deep breath.

"What do we do now?" Andrew asked, sinking into the opposing couch.

"We wait for Fitz to get in," Cyrus said, and Andrew nodded.

"How do we save Mellie?"

"It'd be a suicide mission," Huck told him, as Cyrus went over to the window, "Once they decide they're going to kill you, they do it. Unless that's not their intention, but I would doubt it."

Cyrus tried to block out their conversation behind him, and stared out the window. He always saw Fitz doing that when he had been there. When he had been Fitz – and he was hoping that since he was heading back he might be a little more himself than he had been last time he saw him. He never quite understood why Fitz stood by the window, looking out so often, and for so long. He had asked him once, but he hadn't answered. He assumed that it was stress related. He always wished that he could have the lowered stress of being the President versus being the chief of staff. It was the job that he always wanted, and even now he had to admit that he would have been bored being President. It was an overrated position, and it was never worth it. The pain that it brought with it – except for the spot in History. People would remember Fitz. They would love him for all the pain he suffered while he was serving his country.

He was expecting Andrew to start complaining about the time, but the reality of the situation seemed to silence him. He hadn't moved from the couch where he and Huck had been the bearers of bad news – like grim reapers. But honestly, what else would they be at this point. He saw the lights go on out in the field, and he could hear Fitz's small plane engine coming in. This whole game that was their lives had just gotten a whole hell of a lot more dangerous, and he wasn't even sure what they could accomplish from here.

"Huck," Cyrus said, as he turned around from the window, "Daniel!"

"Yes, Sir?" Daniel asked as he popped his head into the room.

"Take Huck down to meet Fitz's plane," Cyrus said, and Daniel nodded as Huck went off with him.

It wouldn't be fair to not give him at least a little bit of warning that something was wrong. That something was amiss – like Olivia's right hand man meeting him when he got back. He would get the message, and he would be running into the Oval as quickly as he possibly could. There was also the added fact that the faster he got there, the shorter time period Cyrus had to be alone with Andrew . He wasn't sure how much of him he was going to be able to take in the next couple of days. Of course, he hadn't been betting on the broken ankle, and Fitz coming into the Oval on crutches nearly a full ten minutes later.

"This is an interesting party," Fitz said solemnly as he got himself over to the couch and sitting down next to Andrew, "What's going on?"

"Fitz – something's happened," Cyrus told him.

"Olivia?" He asked, and Cyrus watched the panic in his eyes flood in.

"No – to the best of our knowledge, she's fine," Cyrus said, as Huck closed the door and Fitz relaxed - then spotted the look on Andrew's face.

"Where's Mellie?" Fitz asked, looking around the room.

"Fitz – " Cyrus rook a deep breath.

"She went to London to try and get your girl to come back," Andrew stood up with a fair amount of anger, glaring at Fitz as he crossed the room and poured himself a glass of the scotch on the table, downed it without a breath, "She got back your girl's daddy came and took her – she wasn't even here a half hour."

Andrew hadn't even finished his sentence before he flung his glass across the room, very narrowly missing Fitz's head as it shattered on the wall behind him. Fitz had dodged it just in time, the door slammed announcing Andrew's departure.

"Andrew!" Fitz shouted after him, turning his head to look behind him at the door.

"Let him go," Huck said, "He'll be back."

"What the fuck happened?" Fitz said, and Cyrus took a deep breath, running his hands down the sides of his face.

"Mellie went – behind my back with Huck to London," Cyrus said, "That's where Huck ended up tracking Olivia too."

"And Jake."

"Olivia and Jake," Cyrus nodded, "And they went out and found them."

"Did you see her?" Fitz asked, and Cyrus had to look away, the desperation on his face.

"I saw her briefly, on her way to work," Huck told him, "She looked good. She looked like Olivia – just sad."

"Sir," Cyrus interrupted, "Rowan walked right into this White House and took Mellie from her office."

"I know," Fitz said quietly, "I heard Andrew."

"What do you want to tell the press?" Cyrus asked him, and Fitz looked up at him like he was crazy.

"We can't tell anyone until we have her back," Fitz said, and Cyrus gave him a sad look, "The American people can't deal with her being gone. The American people – My kids."

"Sir," Cyrus said, stopping him – knowing that was what he wanted.

"My kids lost their brother already," Fitz said, "And now you want me to have to tell them that they're going to lose their mother, too? No. No one's going to know until we either have her back, or we have a body."

"All due respect, sir," Huck said, pausing for a breath, "I don't think that's what you want to do. They made a mistake, sir. They took the First Lady – that's right out in the open."

"How do I tell my kids to expect their mother to show up dead?" Fitz asked, glaring back at Huck.

"There are ways for them to not find out."

"We only really have to block Karen," Cyrus said.

"She's a teenager…"

"We can do it, sir," Cyrus said, and Fitz nodded.

"Fine."

"It'll have been a carjacking," Cyrus said, and Fitz glared at him.

"Cy."

"A carjacking that resulted in the First Lady being kidnapped."

"Cyrus…"

"What? Two can't play at that game?"

"Fine," Fitz said, hoisting himself up onto his crutches, "C'mon, Huck."

There was something about the resolve in his voice that made Cyrus' ears perk up.

"Sir?"

"Where are we going?" Huck asked him as Fitz balanced on his crutches.

"We're going to get Livy," Fitz said, and Cyrus exchanged looks with Huck.

"Sir – you can't do that."

"LIKE HELL I CAN'T!" Fitz's temper went from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds as he dropped his crutches, "I AM GOING TO GET ON A FUCKING PLANE AND I AM GOING TO GO GET OLIVIA. I'LL FLY THE GODDAMNED PLANE THERE MYSELF IF I HAVE TO. YOU CANNOT ASK ME TO STAND HERE AND WAIT FOR HIM TO – IF ANYONE'S TOUCHED A HAIR ON HER HEAD I SWEAR I WILL MURDER THEM MYSELF."

"You're angry, Fitz."

"FUCKING RIGHT, I'M ANGRY," Fitz spat, and Cyrus took a step back, "He TOOK JERRY. He TOOK MELLIE. If he takes Livy…"

"Sir, with all due respect, he's already taken Olivia," Cyrus said, and Fitz swallowed, tears were on his cheeks, "You can't go to London, because there's no way for us to get you there under the radar. I agree that we need to get Olivia out of there, but the minute they hear you're on a plane to London – either your plane gets shot down or they kill her. He has Jake right there. We need to find someone we can send in and get her for us. But I don't think she's ever going to be able to come back here."

"I have to go," Fitz said, hobbling on one leg to get his crutches.

"What happened to your foot?"

"Fell," Fitz said, settling his crutches under his arms again, "I want a team looking for Mellie."

"Sir, we can't – "

"B613 took the First Lady of the United States," Fitz said, making his way towards the door, then turning and stopping, "Make them sweat. We're not hiding them, anymore. We're not covering them up. We don't need to explicitly say anything – but I expect Mellie back in this building, or Rowan's head on my desk. My kids can't lose their mom. – Hal!"

"Sir?"

"C'mon, we're going," Fitz said, handing him a slip of paper out of his pocket.

"Where are you going, sir?" Cyrus asked, and Fitz whipped around, almost losing his balance all together.

"To get Olivia," Fitz said, not pausing for a breath, "Get Andrew back down here, and get Mellie."

"Sir, you can't – " Cyrus said, but the door slammed again before he finished his sentence, he turned to Huck, "What're the chances we find her in time?"

"We'll see what I can do," Huck said.

"Get your friend Charlie in here," Cyrus said, and Huck raised an eyebrow, "B613 has to be scrambling about now. He might want an out."


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: …Hi...Enjoy guys!

The Redeemed

Chapter Thirteen

It was just depressing, watching Olivia from where he was sitting in the back corner of the pub. Olivia was sitting at the bar, he wasn't sure that she knew he was there. He had walked in and waved to her, after getting home and finding that she wasn't there, again. Two days in a row she hadn't come home after work, last night he had waited for her to come home, but she was absolutely smashed by the time she came in the door. It had been a miracle that she had even made it back to the flat without getting hit or something. That was why he went through her purse before going to bed himself, finding the receipt to the bar that she went to, because he had checked the ones that she usually frequented. He didn't find a receipt, but a napkin – half covered in something sticky, looked like some sort of drink, had fallen into her purse. And now he was watching her, he had officially become the babysitter. But that wasn't even what was making him feel so sad – it was more the fact that it was seven-thirty and Olivia starting to sway on her stool.

The guys to her left and right were buying her drinks as quickly as she was drinking them. He took a deep breath as he chewed on his 'chips' and sipped on a beer. It was the only one that he was planning on having that night. Well, honestly he hadn't been planning on drinking at all, but watching Olivia spiral like she had been since her visit from Mellie – that made him in dire need of a beer. Besides that, it might draw some kind of attention in this particular bar if he didn't at least eat or drink something while he was sitting there.

"You," One of the girls behind the bar said as she walked over to him, "You should talk to her, or you should go."

"She's my wife," He told her, and the girl looked a little shocked, "She's going through something right now. I just want to make sure she gets home ok."

"Oh," She said, and he nodded, showing her the ring on his finger, "I'll help you to more chips?"

"Yeah," Jake said, nodding slightly as she went back over to the counter.

He waited another hour or so, just watching as she went further down the hole. She wasn't doing well, and he didn't know what else to do other than to make sure she got home safe at the end of the night. He had tried trying to talk to her, trying to at least figure out what Mellie had said to her to make her so upset – but he had a few ideas. He could guess some of the things that might have been said, but he really just didn't even know how to fix it for her. When Rowan had called he had been furious – and Jake had told him that it just made her want to stay away more. She even said, she was tired of being 'the help' whatever that meant when he had finally calmed her down that night. She may have convinced herself that that was all she was to him. Or maybe she had tried. He took a deep breath as he saw her nearly fall off her stool, getting up and putting his coat on as one of the guys stood up with her.

"Olivia," Jake said as he walked over.

"Hey, lay off," said the guy who had been sitting to her right, and Jake turned and glared at him.

"How about you lay off?" Jake asked, making sure that he was keeping Olivia on her feet as he made her rings and his rather obvious.

"Sorry – "

"You didn't know?" Jake asked, as he leaned down and picked her up in both arms, "Don't feed me that shit."

"Jake-" Olivia mumbled, and Jake nodded as he adjusted her in his arms.

"C'mon, Liv," He said as he carried her out onto the street, "I'm taking you home."

"How are you going to do that?" She mumbled, and Jake tried not to think too hard about it, "Hey. Put me down."

She said it like she had only just realized that he was carrying her – which worried him.

"No."

"Jake!"

"What do you think this accomplishes? Getting so drunk that you can't even walk home?" Jake asked her, knowing that it probably wasn't the best idea to have this conversation while she was trashed.

"I can walk, you just decided that I couldn't," Olivia's voice hit a dangerous note, and he set her down, careful.

He had learned that she got particularly snappy when she got to a certain level of drunkenness. It was worse than when someone insulted one of her clients back in DC, because now she had no filter. Not when she was drunk like this. It was interesting, Olivia Pope didn't slur her speech or get as sloppy as most did when they're drunk. She used to, now she just got angry. It had been creeping up since they moved to England, and now it was the only thing that happened. He was starting to think that it was anger that was always there, that she could hide while she was sober. Or at least she used to be able to. She wouldn't be making sense in a few minutes, and he just wanted to get her home before that happened.

"Olivia, c'mon," Jake said as she stumbled slightly into the alley way, and puked, "Oh Good. Go on, get it out of your system."

"Nice," She said as she wiped her mouth with her arm and they kept walking.

They got a few more feet before she was leaning on a fence by a flat building they were passing. He waited for a couple of minutes, making sure that she wasn't going to recover before stepping up. He walked up behind her, and scooped her up again, carrying her in both arms towards the flat. She passed out – her head bobbing slightly as he walked. He shifted so that her head was against his shoulder instead. She was already going to be sore in the morning, he didn't want her neck to be thrown into the whole ordeal.

"Fitz," She mumbled as he walked up the steps – it didn't raise any flags as he pushed through the door.

"Liv," Jake whispered, not unaccustomed to hearing her call for him in her sleep, or right after waking up, "Go back to sleep."

"Fitz," Her voice had changed to something Jake wished it hadn't.

A whine, almost a seductive whine, and he took a deep breath as he walked her into the bedroom and put her down on the bed. He wasn't sure if she had still been dreaming, or if in her extraordinarily foggy mind she had thought that he was Fitz. Fitz, carrying her home - it sounded very Fitz-like. Not that it really mattered because she was already back to sleep, snoring by the time he walked around to the end of the bed and taking her shoes off for her. He let them drop to the floor, and then headed out of the room, shutting the door behind him lightly. He walked out to the living room and picked up her keys, stashing them in his pocket in case she woke up and got any bright ideas. He walked out the door and locked the door behind him as he headed down the street.

The night was a little bit cooler now, and he turned up his collar as he headed towards the river. It was a little to late to meet Father Dean at St. Paul's. He would just head right over to the river and meet him at his first stop instead. He got there just as he saw the old Priest's car pull up, and he shuddered as he walked over towards the car to help him.

"You look upset," Father Dean commented, and Jake nodded.

"Yeah," Jake replied, and Dean nodded.

"The wife again?"

"Yeah, she's having a lot of trouble," Jake said.

"It's not your fault."

"What if it is?" Jake said, "I thought if I could get her away from him she would realize that he didn't make her sun go up and down every morning and night."

"People's own truths greatly affect their psyches. You've said that this guy wasn't something viable, wasn't healthy?"

"He was married," Jake said, and the old priest nodded, "He didn't want to be. He loved her more than anything. If he could have he would have dropped everything to run away with her. He couldn't because of his job, and she wouldn't let him."

"You know all this for a fact? That he loved her? That he wasn't just using her?"

"I do."

"How?"

"He was my friend – at one point."

"How's he doing? With all of this?"

"I don't care."

"I think you might."

"I don't."

"Then you make an awful good point of mentioning that he's your friend," Dean said as they walked towards one of their known alley ways, "Even though it sounds as if you haven't actually been friends in some time."

"I don't care how he's doing," Jake said, and the priest nodded, "She's going to drink herself into a coma."

"There's not much you can do about that if she's put her mind to do it," Father Dean told him as they walked, "From what I understand, she's quite determined when she wants to be."

"Not even when she needs to be," Jake said, as they paused to hand food to the homeless.

Their conversation paused as they did. Jakes still didn't quite understand what the Priest had meant that first night about learning to care about the people that they were bringing food to. The past couple nights he hadn't felt a damn thing. Except maybe contempt as they catcalled at passersby before they saw them walking up with the food, and they shined their halos. He passed out bread while Father Dean passed out waters, and checked for any new injuries. At least his aide was helping Father Dean to get home a little bit earlier than he usually did. He paused as he stopped in front of Danny.

Danny might have been the only one he knew by name – only because he was shockingly young. He couldn't be any older than himself, and that kind of unnerved him as he passed him a small amount of bread, and realized there was a cut on his face. Just below his eye. If they were anywhere else, Jake would have suggested that he be brought to the ER for stitches. He knelt down to him, and waved over Dean.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

"Danny's got a huge cut," Jake said, and Dean handed him a clean cloth to clean it with, "What happened, Dan?"

"Kids," Danny breathed, and Jake raised his eyebrows.

"Kids did this to you?" Jake asked, and Danny nodded lightly, wincing as Jake took the largest bandage they had, smeared some ointment on it, and put in on his cheek.

"A few of the gangs have decided it's fun," Dean informed him, and Jake took a deep breath.

"How do they think it's ok?" Jake asked, as he tossed the trash and they kept walking towards the next group.

"I don't think they do," Dean said sadly, "It's the leaders proving their control. No one gains from it, they just know that they have the kids by the scruff of the neck."

"Right," Jake nodded, he knew a few people like that – there really was no difference, was there?

"So tell me, knowing all of this going in as you did – why did you marry her?" Dean asked, and Jake was sort of caught off guard.

It wasn't like he could tell him the real answer - that he hadn't. That her father had decided it was the easiest, and best cover story for them.

"She's – she's amazing," Jake said, "I mean, she was amazing. Heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking sitting there, knowing that she was waiting around for something that might not ever happen. She has – had – this thing about her, where she's always trying to see the best in people. It's something I have a hard time doing – And…"

"And?"

"I wanted to beat him," Jake said, and Dean stopped, turning to look at him, "He's the golden boy, he was always the 'best'. It makes sense that she would fall for him. He's this perfect little rich kid who's biggest problem was that daddy slept around. But as for faults, he didn't even inherit that."

"Seems like he might have."

"No, he loved her. She was the only one he strayed for," Jake said, taking a deep breath, "And long, long after they both had checked out – it was not exactly a situation where he thought he loved his wife when they got married. It was more of convenience. Which, just gives him more points with everyone, ya know? Anyway – I wanted to beat him."

"Sounds like you made a mistake," Dean said, and Jake didn't say anything, "It seems like you couldn't have this guy's life – so you took what mattered most to him instead. You didn't have anything easy, right? Well, I think that you're finding out the hard way that that's not how love works. And I say this next bit because I feel like you need to hear it – she's never going to love you like she loved him."

"Yeah, I got that," Jake said coolly.

"Do you?"

"She called me by his name earlier, when I was carrying her home from the bar," Jake said, and the Priest nodded.

"You saw her bathing on the roof."

"What?"

"It's story," Dean replied, and Jake waited for him to continue, "King David, Old Testament. One evening David saw a woman bathing on a roof. She was beautiful, and he asked someone to tell him about her. 'She is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam – "

"Eliam?"

"Yes."

"Of course, keep going?"

"…and the wife of Uriah'," Dean continued, "Long story short, he gets her pregnant, and then has Uriah killed – in war."

"Alright."

"David marries the girl, and his first born son dies," Dean said, "Because the house is poisoned. Because he was selfish, and because he did not care who he hurt. He wanted what he wanted. I don't like dead kids, it's not my favorite story in the bible, but it's there for a reason. I think that's where this story stops being relevant to you. So I ask again, how is he? Your friend?"

"He's the one that was married."

"You're missing the point – and I don't think I ever will see you walk into my church, so I think that I can freely bring to your attention – men also had multiple wives," He said, "If you're looking for a literal interpretation of the bible to fit your life, with your cell phone and your car, you're not going to find it. The world is changed. So, tell me…"

"Not well," Jake replied, realizing that the story did not have to be literal, "He had a break down."

Jake was careful not to add in too many details, because he didn't want to give too much. They didn't talk much the rest of their evening, and the story spun in his head as he walked around London by the night lighting. Jake, as per custom now, walked him back to his car and that's when Dean stopped, his door open.

"Jake – you have many demons inside of you," He said, taking a deep breath, "We all do, but you – are you sure that this is one that you want to take on for the long haul?"

Jake didn't answer him, only helped him into his car, and then started shuffling down the street back to the flat. He didn't want to go back inside, but at the top of the street he felt his blood run cold momentarily. It was a sense that he only felt course through his veins a couple times in his life. And he knew – instinctively – that something was wrong. Something was not as he wanted it, not as he intended. He broke into a run and hurried up the steps, walking into the living room to find the lights on.

"Jake, you are useless, aren't you?" Maya Pope was sitting in his arm chair, gun in hand, "She's that drunk and passed out and you left her alone? Are you completely irresponsible? I'd love to know what he would do to you if he found out that you let his biggest bargaining chip die choking on her own vomit."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jake asked and Maya smirked.

"I'm taking over for you, honey," She said with a smile, tapping the gun on the arm of the chair, "I'll look after Olivia."

"I am assigned to be here," Jake said, and Maya nodded.

"I know," Maya stood up, "You allowed Eli to put her in more danger than he ever has before. He's gone blind, and I'm afraid he's going to hurt her."

"I wouldn't let that happen."

"I'm afraid you wouldn't have a choice," Maya said, "That's how that – country – trains you, right? Attack dogs cloaked as watch dogs, and ready to rip out even each other's throats. I'll give you ten minutes to gather what you want, and leave."


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Hey guys, hope you all had a good weekend. Enjoy :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Fourteen

"Where is it exactly we're going?" Hal was making a face at the address on the piece of paper as Fitz sat in the backseat of the car.

"Just drive, Hal," Fitz replied, leaning back in his seat.

"Sir – "

"Relax, Hal," Fitz said bitterly, "We're just going across town. We can be back at the White House in fifteen minutes if we have to. I just have to meet with someone."

"Ok," Hal replied as he pulled in behind an old car garage – up to an old diner that looked like it had been closed for a great deal of time, "DO you want me to go in with you, Sir?"

"No," Fitz said, knowing that Hal rooting around would only make it worse if she was going to double cross him.

One of the back lights in the diner turned on, he could barely see it, but he knew that it was a sign. He slipped across the backseat so that he was as close to the front door as possible, then checked out the back window. Turning the collar of his coat up to block his neck, he made sure that no one was coming either way – he assumed because it was about five in the morning. This was his last stop before he took a Xanax and went and got some sleep. He wasn't going to be any type of useful unless he got some sleep. He opened the door, and slipped out – within ten steps he walked through the door of the diner. It was old, and dusty – but apparently whoever abandoned it hadn't taken anything with them.

"Took you long enough to get here – get off of that foot," Maya commented as she appeared, gesturing towards a seat and he went to sit down, "I was starting to worry that I was going to have to leave before you got here. I'm sorry about your wife. That wasn't part of the plan. It's a terrible thing to take a child's mother from them."

"I want it to be part of the deal," Fitz said, "I know you can do it. I need her out of there."

The mood shifted, and Fitz felt goose bumps rise on the back of his neck.

"Fitz, I think you misunderstand me," Maya said as she leaned back, "I do not care. All I care about is getting Olivia to safety. I'm sorry for those kids – but I do not have time to go after her. Besides – it will be impossible. Eli isn't going to let her out of his sight – not really. Part of outsmarting him is picking your battles, and knowing when to strike."

"Right," Fitz said, taking a deep breath.

"I'm leaving for London in a few hours," Maya told him, changing the subject abruptly, "Him taking Mellie means that he's gone off the grid. He's not even playing by his own rules anymore."

"So how are we going to get Livy?" Fitz asked.

"You're going to leave most of that to me," Maya assured him, "Before I let you in on the plan – I have to make sure you're in. I believe you that you love her – but how much?"

"I would do anything," Fitz said, and Maya nodded.

"I need you to schedule an address for Friday," Maya said, "A week from now. Let everyone think that it's when you're going to announce your resignation."

"Ok," Fitz said, taking a breath.

"It'll scare the hell out of him," Maya said, "He loses you as President he fades back into oblivion. He doesn't get to pull the strings anymore because the next president won't know about him. He can't just waltz right in and force his influence as easily as he does now. It'll cause even more panic over there than there is now."

"I was actually planning on resigning."

"If my plan goes as it should – you won't have to," Maya said, "Who will Huck and Cy be sending to try and get her?"

"Charlie."

"Now that's just stupid," Maya said, leaning back, "Don't worry – I'll keep an eye on it."

"You said you had a plan," Fitz said, and she nodded.

"I can only tell you some of it here," She said, "But it's important that you follow what I say to the letter, ok?"

"Agreed," Fitz said, nodding, "I want Olivia home, and safe."

"And in your arms again."

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"No. I like you. You're as good to her as you can be – I'm assuming you'll be better once you get her back. And you do what has to be done," Maya replied.

Fitz was surprised.

"Her father doesn't feel the same way."

"We never did agree on much," She replied, sliding an old flip phone across the table to him, "Keep this on you."

"Will do," Fitz said, slipping the phone into his pocket.

"So you're going to plan on resigning Friday…"

Fitz didn't leave the diner for another twenty minutes as Maya was giving him a quick overview of her plan. It was risky, and they all knew what was at stake – but it would be all the same circumstances with any sort of rescue mission. Though, for some reason he liked his odds better when he was teamed up with Maya than he was teamed up with anyone else. He knew that she added in a added risk on his part – but he had a feeling that parent to parent, she would never let anything happen to Olivia. As long as he kept his head above board, and did exactly as she said, exactly what she needed of him – he knew that this would be over soon.

"Sir?" Cyrus asked as Fitz wobbled into the residence on his crutches.

"I haven't slept in almost two days," Fitz said as he got to the middle of the room, "I need a small tranquilizer, and I need my damn bed. Or else I'm not going to be any use to anyone."

"Huck," Cyrus said, and he stepped forward, handing Cyrus a pill bottle.

"Make sure you only have one," Huck said, and Fitz nodded, "Or a half of one."

"Ok," Fitz reached out for it, but Cyrus held it back on him, "What?"

"Where'd you go? You were gone for an hour," Cyrus asked him, and Fitz looked down at the ground before looking back up at him.

"Cy, I've been holding my tongue," Fitz said, "But now, I am angry with you. You do not withhold sleep from me because you're feeling curious about my whereabouts. Where were you, Cy? Where were you when Mellie went across the fucking Ocean? Where were you when Olivia decided it was better if she just fell off the face of the planet?"

Cyrus took a breath, with no response as Fitz headed towards his room – snagging the bottle of pills on his way.

"Get out of my house, Cy," Fitz shouted over his shoulder as he finished getting to his room.

He sat on the bed, and let his crutches fall to the floor. Pain was radiating from his ankle again, but he preferred not to take another pain pill and instead take one of the sleeping pills instead. He turned back to the door, reaching down to get his crutch to push the door open when he realized that Huck and Cyrus were standing in the doorway. Fitz rolled his eyes, and went to close the door anyway. Huck stopped it, and he dropped the crutch – not sure he really wanted to annoy Huck any more than he already was. Huck loved Olivia like a mother, or a big sister. They were on the same side – kind of.

"Remember, just take a half," Huck said, taking a deep breath, "No more than one in twenty-four hours."

"Ok," Fitz said, opening the bottle, taking one out, splitting it in half, then putting the rest of them into his nighstand drawer.

"Fitz," Cyrus said, and Fitz leaned back on his pillow, "We're going to have a hard cast put on your foot later this afternoon. The doctor will be here when you wake up."

"Can I get a walking cast?" Fitz asked, and Cyrus shook his head.

"No, sir," Cyrus told him, and Fitz nodded.

"Alright," Fitz said, he could feel the phone Maya gave him in his pocket, "Now both of you, out. And close the door."

They did as he asked, and he pulled it out of his pocket, and put it on the nightstand by his bed. Maya would be in the air for the next six hours, so he wasn't too concerned about missing anything. He looked down at his foot, wishing that he had a little more flexibility with it before he leaned back on his pillow. His mouth was little bit dry, and so he leaned over and poured himself a glass of water to swallow down the half a horse pill. When he had asked for a tranquilizer, he hadn't actually thought they would have one on hand. However, he assumed that Huck and Cyrus would have thought of something, doing the math realizing how long he had been awake.

"Sir, Sir," He woke up to the sound of Cyrus in his room again, and he opened his eyes slowly, waiting for Cyrus to turn around before slipping the phone into the drawer with the sleeping pills, "The doctor's here to cast your leg."

"Send him in," Fitz scooted himself up so that he was sitting up when the doctor shuffled into the room, "The sooner this gets fixed the sooner I can get around better, right, Doc?"

"Yes, Sir," He said, wheeling in a cart, "We're gonna get you all set up with a water proof cast – you might not even notice when it heals it won't even bother you a bit."

"Thanks," Fitz replied, giving the man a little smile as he leaned back and stared up at the ceiling.

Cyrus waited in the room with him and the doctor, like he was afraid Fitz might take off again if he left him alone for a few minutes. Fitz wondered if he had sat outside the bedroom door, and he chuckled to himself a little bit at the thought of Cyrus just sitting out there in a chair in the hallway with Hal. He assumed that Hal had lost all of his acceptance, and all of the trust that Cyrus had once had in him. The minute the doctor left, Cyrus walked over and helped him up to his feet from the bed.

"Cy would you – "

"Sorry, Sir," Cyrus backed off as quickly as he had come over, "There's just a lot that I'd like to fill you in on."

"I need a shower," Fitz said, and Cyrus took a deep breath.

"I can tell you then," Cyrus said, and Fitz gave him a suspicious look.

"Wow," Fitz said, sarcasm and anger taking him over, "Should I be flattered, or – "

"Sir."

"Forgive me," Fitz said, running his hand across his forehead, "You're just not exactly my favorite person right now."

"I get that sir."

"Do we know how she was taken?"

"Tom," Cyrus said, and Fitz's heart sank.

"Tom?"

"From what Huck says, he's been B613 for years," Cyrus continued, and Fitz nodded realizing that that was just the way his life worked out – all the time, "His security clearance has been rejected. But—"

"If he really wants in, he'll get in," Fitz said, and Cyrus nodded, "How long have you known?"

"A few days."

"Right. I take back my apology."

"I don't think Eli'll send him again," Cyrus replied, and Fitz nodded, "Charlie leaves for London in two hours. He'll be going in tomorrow evening."

"Alright," Fitz said, Maya would already be there, "Anything else I should be aware of?"

"Andrew and I are having a meeting down in the Oval in twenty minutes."

"Make it twenty-five," Fitz said, getting stuff together for his shower, taking the phone back out of the drawer, and putting it back in his pocket, "I'll be down right after I wash up."

The meeting with Andrew just ended up telling him that he had cooled down. The fact that Mellie's body hadn't shown up in a river or in a lake somewhere was good news. The press was scrambling and starting to form a band of people outside the White House. There were candles burning, and a crowd forming. He had called Mellie's parents on the way down, and had them with the understanding that Karen and Teddy didn't need to know about it yet. They agreed, and so the kids were in a safe place. He sat through the meeting with Andrew with a courteous attitude. He understood that Mellie was in a much more dangerous position than Olivia was. But there was also a case to be made, now that he was thinking straight, about who they were more likely to recover alive. With Maya on Olivia's side, and trying as hard as she was to rescue her – there was no doubting that Olivia's survival wasn't quite promising, but it was at a better odd than Mellie. If Mellie was going to survive, it was because B613 had decided that taking Mellie had been brash, and that they needed to release her safely. He doubted that that was going to happen.

Andrew seemed to be convinced that he was going to be able to save her, and Fitz understood. Fitz was sure that he seemed just as crazy saying that Olivia was savable. To Cyrus and Huck, saving either of them was a lofty dream. Other than the fact that he wished he could help, there wasn't much he could do. He didn't, however, want to try and tell Andrew that there wasn't a way to get her without compromising everyone. He didn't want to because he knew exactly how he would react to someone telling him the same for Olivia. So, he sat there offering ideas, hoping to keep some hope in him while Cyrus and Huck shot both of their ideas.

"Sir, is everything ok?" Cyrus asked him as he got up from his desk, his crutches starting to be a pain in and of themselves.

"We need to find something to keep his hopes up," Fitz said and Cyrus gave him a look.

"If we keep their toes in hot water, they might release her," Cyrus knew it was crap even as he was saying it, and Fitz nodded.

"Huck."

"I'm not comfortable with lying, Sir."

"I'll do it," Cyrus said, and Fitz nodded as he looked over at Huck.

"Let me know when your guy lands," Fitz said, and Huck nodded as Fitz paused by the door, "Cyrus, I want to oaddress the nation on Friday night. And I want our top guys working on a resignation speech."

Cyrus opened his mouth to speak, but Fitz was already heading back towards the residence.

It was late now, and he had to get back onto a normal sleep schedule. It was almost seven, and he wanted to call Karen and Teddy before Teddy was put down to sleep for the night. He sat down in the living room of the residence and put Maya's phone, as bulky and annoying as it was on the coffee table as he pulled out his personal. Hal was staying in one of the guest rooms – just in case he was needed.

"Dad," Karen answered the phone and Fitz smiled.

"Hey, sweetie," Fitz said, and he could almost hear the relief over the phone.

"It's good to hear you normal again," She said, and Fitz smiled.

"Yeah," He replied, "You too, Kare. How's Grandma and Grandpa?"

"They won't let me watch TV," Karen said, and Fitz tried to chuckle, "You ok, dad?"

"Yeah," Fitz said, "It's good, you not watching TV."

"Grandma's trying to teach me how to cook."

"One meal isn't going to kill you," Fitz said, remembering the conversation that he had had with Mellie's mother, "Be easy on your grandma, ok?"

"She's been acting weird."

"She misses you kids," Fitz told her, "Just make sure you're easy on her, ok? She really took Jerry hard, ok?"

"Ok, dad," Karen replied as the phone on the coffee table started to ring.

"I'm sorry, I have to go, kiddo," Fitz told Karen as he pick the other phone up, had it ringing in his hand , "Kiss Teddy goodnight for me. And be good."

"Ok, Dad."

"Love you," He told her as he hung up, and then pulled the other phone up to his ear, "Hello?"

There was silence on the other end.

"Hello? Hello?"

There was another second or two of silence, and he was about to hang up when he heard a voice that he had been dying to hear for –

"Fitz."

"Livy?" He was cautious saying her name, like if he said it too loud she would hang up and never show up on anyone's radar ever again.

"I made a mistake."

"We both did," Fitz said, "I'm going to find a way to get you safe again."

"Jake – "

"I know, don't worry about it," He said, "I love you . I don't care – "

"He's still working with my father."

"I know," Fitz said, "I didn't – but now I do. Listen, Livy there's something I need for you to do for me. You need to trust your mother. You need to go with her."

"What? I just sent her out – what are you talking about? My mother – "

"Your mother wants you safe," Fitz told her, looking around the room to make sure that he was alone, "That's more than your father. I can't tell you everything that's going on over the phone – but I need you to trust me on this, ok?"

"She left."

"She'll be back," Fitz assured her, "God, it's good to hear your voice."

"You too."

"We shouldn't stay on the line long."

"Fitz."

"Yeah?"

"I need a minute," She told him, and he heard her sigh, "One minute. Just keep talking."

"I went to the house," He said, for some reason she let out a sigh of relief, "With an axe. I was going to rip it to shreds, and then I just – couldn't."

"Good, that place is beautiful. It's the only thing keeping me sane."

He smiled.

"I couldn't get you and Jake out of my head."

"He's gone, I kicked him out too," Olivia replied, "I woke up to him fighting with my mother. But you're working with her."

"I am," Fitz said, taking a deep breath, "You know, when I was standing there with that axe and I couldn't – that's when I forgave you. I don't care about any of this shit. I just want you to be safe. So does your mother."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Hey guys thanks for the support, and I'll be trying to update this as I can – but it's finals week too. Anyways, Enjoy :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Fifteen

Early Monday Morning.

"…I want to know why you're pretending to be my daughter's friend."

"I don't know why you're pretending that you care…"

Olivia rolled over on her bed, trying to figure out how to get back to sleep. The pillow puffed up around the back of her head and she could feel a headache starting to pound on in the back of her brain. She knew that she had to get up and go get a glass of water and a painkiller, but first she had to wake up enough to figure out who was yelling with Jake out in the living room.

"Of course I care! I am her mother."

Well, then that was making that pretty clear. She took a deep breath, then rolled over again. Wait, her mother was dead. Her father had had her killed after she –

"You were never – "

"I was locked in a cell," Maya replied, "By a man that you're still working for."

"I – "

"Try and tell me you're not," Maya said, "Try and tell me that you aren't still working for him. I dare you."

Olivia put her hand on her head as she shuffled out of her room. She was still a little groggy, and there was no way that her brain was functioning as it should. Then, as she stepped into the living room and got a full picture of what was going on. Maya was sitting in a chair casually, pointing a gun up at Jake, who was standing in the middle of the room. She took a deep breath as she took another step towards them, and she remembered the last conversation that she had had with her mother – she had thought that she was talking about Fitz – but she was talking about her father. She thought that she was making her think that she was talking about her father while warning her about something with Fitz – but she wasn't. She was talking plain out.

"Livy," Her mother saw her, and Jake flipped around.

"Olivia, go on, get out of here," Jake said, and Maya rolled her eyes.

"Shut up, you idiot," Maya stood up, bringing the gun just a little bit closer to him, and pointing it a little higher.

"Jake, get out," Olivia said, taking a deep breath as she crossed her arms tight around herself – like she was holding herself up that way.

"Olivia – I – "

"Get the fuck out of my apartment, Jake!" Olivia yelled and Maya flipped off the safety on the gun.

"I think you should go," Maya said as she took another step closer to him.

"What's – "

"Fine," Jake looked at Olivia, giving her a look like she was making the biggest mistake of her life, but something in her told her she wasn't.

Maya put the gun away.

"You too," Olivia said to her mom, and Maya nodded.

"Olivia-"

"I can't – "

"Olivia," Maya said, putting an old looking cellphone onto the coffee table with a piece of paper, "We don't have a lot of time – "

"You realize what happened last time I went along with you?"

"That's fair," She replied, "But I didn't have time to explain to you…"

"Out. Please," Olivia said, "I cannot deal with you right now."

"Fine. I removed all the bugs that your buddy Jake had in here."

Maya walked out of the flat, shutting the door and locking it behind her. Olivia took a deep breath and walked over to the phone and note on the coffee table. The note had been taped to it, she clearly hadn't really expected Olivia to be overjoyed to see her. She had planned a backup, and Olivia picked it up. The instructed her to call the second speed dial number. She pressed two, and then send and held the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

She recognized the voice and felt herself start to panic.

"Hello? Hello?"

The couch's fabric was wet against her cheek, but she was just amazed that she still had tears to spare. There was not, ay that she had been ready for that, to hear his voice on the other end of the phone. As much as she needed him, and as much as it hurt to be away – as much as she had longed for him. It was distant, he was distant. But really, there wasn't much that she could expect better than that, right? She had left, and whatever her reasons, whatever she meant by it – it had hurt him. It had hurt them, which she had expected. So, as she was lying there curled up on the couch and alone in her apartment – flat – whatever – she wished she could say, or even let herself think that it was Fitz's voice was the one that was echoing off her skull. That it was him telling her that he loved her anyway, no matter what happened. That he was going to get her back, and that she was going to be safe again. But it wasn't.

All she could think about were the words that she had woken up to, in her mother's voice bouncing around her brain like someone had let a tornado loose in her brain. How had she not realized that Jake would still be working for her father? Of course he was, she must have known it somewhere in the back of her mind – there was no way that she was that much of an idiot. No one got out of B613 alive, except for Huck, but really, what kind of life was that? So if she had known, somewhere in the back of her head, what did that mean? When she had called her father and asked him to arrange for a plane, and when she had told Jake that he could come along with her? She took a deep breath as she stared at the cell phone in her hand as she curled herself up.

They had just hung up, not wanting to stay on the line too long and push their luck. Or maybe he was still angry, and he couldn't stand to hear her voice for longer than he had. Either way, as she laid there waiting to fall asleep, after talking to the one man she had been dying to since she left – she felt more alone than ever. And it wasn't because the flat was empty, or because she had kicked both Jake and her mother out. It was the distance from Fitz, and she realized that all the feelings of homesickness that she had been dealing with weren't really 'homesickness' at all. It was just Fitz, which she hadn't been ready to admit to herself fully, just that she missed him, too. If she hadn't run away like she had - she might've figured out what was happening. That her mother had very little to do with his son's death, and that there was something bigger than met the eye going on.

Now Fitz was in a deal with her mother to get her back, and that was the last thing that she had wanted to happen. By trying not to be a burden, by trying to take herself out of the picture, had just made everything worse. So, she was giving up. She wasn't going to think, or over analyze what was going on. The phone in her hand, she realized it had been a sign of goodwill. Maya had made her deal with Fitz to work together, and then she arranged it so that he could talk to her, and vice versa without any serious ramifications. Her mother was an evil genius – but if she was willing to help, then maybe there was something there. As long as they both stayed alert to what might happen, and she prayed that he knew enough to be thinking the same.

She would email Abby in the morning – or maybe she would wait. The phone started to feel heavy in her hand, and she reached over to put it back onto the note she had found it on. Where her mother had scratched out a note instructing her to call the second number that was programmed into the phone, and she didn't wonder too long who the first number would bring her to as she pushed herself deeper into the couch. Until finally, she conked out again, and she didn't wake up until she could hear her alarm going off from her room in the back.

"Olivia," Jake was waiting outside the door as she was leaving for work, and she tried to not acknowledge him, "I get you're mad, but we do need to talk."

"Go away," She said it just before he forcibly grabbed her hand and pulled her back into an alley, "Seriously? Jake let go of me or I will call the cops, I promise you."

"I just need to make sure that – "

"I don't do anything dumb?" Olivia asked him, "Like hopping on a plane and flying back to Fitz?"

"That's exactly what I'm afraid you're going to do," Jake said, and Olivia rolled her eyes, "Your father was very specific. If you do that – he'll kill me. Which you might not really care about – "

"Stop acting like a spoiled kid."

"He'll kill him, without even blinking," Jake said, and Olivia swallowed hard, "And then he'll kill you. But he'll make you watch him die first."

"Relax, I'm not going to do anything stupid," Olivia told him as he let go of her, "But I swear, if I ever see your face again I will call the police. I do not care what my father does to you. Just stay away from me."

Jake took a step back, and she took her opportunity to walk back out onto the sidewalk, back into the sun. She had to get to work because she had a full plate. She had never been late to work, and she wasn't about to start now. The idea of raising any sort of alarms was so far off the table that she even made a point of stopping to get her usual breakfast even though she wasn't hungry. She wanted to make sure that no one was even the least amount of suspicious as to what she was up to. Not even a stranger so that when her mother showed up again, it would be a surprise to everyone. Even Jake, if she could manage it. So she could disappear – again.

She walked out of the office that night, and decided to skip the bar. It had only been a pattern of stopping on the way back for a couple of days. It had just served as a little hope for the hopeless. She had been trying to catch a break, because her brain had been going and going with different plans to get back, and the ways that they could go wrong. She had been hitting a brick wall, and she had needed the break that ridiculous amounts of alcohol. Because at a certain point, her brain stopped working the usual way that it did. She dropped her bag on the couch, and pulled the phone her mother left out of it. She wanted to call Fitz, but she knew it wasn't a good idea. Instead, she went to get her laptop and started an email to Abby.

Hey,

i locked dad outta the house last nite. Auntie came to visit, i made her leave. Theres so much going on its cray. ill try to call u but idk when i can. U should just be with the dog, do it for me. i cant get there. ill try to talk to u soon.

Luv you.

She took a deep breath, and went to make herself up some dinner. She looked around the cabinets, and finally found some popcorn, the wine she left on the shelf, not really wanting to break it out. She went over to the couch as she heard it pop, and jumped as she spotted Charlie standing on the edge of the room, and she froze. The microwave beeped in the kitchen, but she didn't even move to go and get it.

"Shh," Charlie put a finger to his lips to quiet her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She hissed.

"I'm here to pick you up," Charlie said urgently, almost under his breath, "It's ok. Cyrus sent me."

"Cy?" Olivia asked, and Charlie nodded.

"Come with me," Charlie held up two United States' passports, "I can get you – "

He paused as she heard the window crash, and she blinked at the noise. The normal reflex to shattering glass being sprayed through the room, and when she opened them, Charlie was on the ground. She was about to scream when she felt an arm wrap around her head, a hand over her mouth. She struggled around so that she could see who it was, and there he was – Jake took a step back and Olivia realized not to scream as he went over to Charlie. Jake took his pulse, and then stepped away.

"He's gone," Jake said, coming back over, and Olivia took a step back as she looked down at the body on the floor.

There was blood pooling around Charlie's head, and she wasn't close enough to actually see – but she was willing to bet that Jake had hit him right, square in the forehead between the eyes. Of course he was gone. But before she could open her mouth to say anything Jake was coming towards her, and someone else had joined the party.

"You really can't ever take a hint, can you?" Maya's voice broke the silence as Jake froze, ten feet from her and spun around, "No wonder you've been hanging on to someone who doesn't want you for so long."

"This is none of your business."

"Oh, I think it is," Maya replied, "This just got pretty interesting. What's your boss going to say when he finds out you've killed one of his best men?"

"I get the feeling that I won't actually have to answer to him, will I?" Jake retorted, and Olivia stepped out from behind him.

"Mom?"

"Hey, baby," She replied, "Are you ready to go now?"

"She's not going anywhere," Jake replied, "Not with Charlie, and definitely not with you."

"Charlie's dead, thanks to you," Maya told him as Olivia started to edge over to her, "And really, thanks. He would have delivered her right to her father for just a little promotion."

"Glad you thought so too," Jake said, and Maya nodded.

"But now, I'll be taking her," Maya said, taking a deep breath, "Because I don't think you're even that much better."

"Probably not," Jake replied, "But I know I'm better than you."

"They brain wash them so young over there," Maya replied, "That's one of the things that I hated most about living in that godforsaken country. Anyone against you is clearly evil. But this personal – I'm taking my daughter." now."

"Liv."

Olivia swallowed, and Maya nodded towards her back on the couch. She went over to it and put it over her shoulder as Maya led her out of the room, keeping the gun on Jake until they were out the door. Maya put her gun away again as they hit the street and started walking, quickly down the side near where Olivia knew that there was a parking garage. Maya put up a hood, and pulled Olivia's up over her head too as they approached, Olivia assumed to avoid being easily shown on the security cameras when they were eventually hacked into later.

"I take it you had a good chat with your boyfriend last night," Maya commented as they got into a car, and backed out of the parking lot.

"Where are we going?" Olivia asked as she grabbed the bar over her window.

She wasn't sure how her mother had driven around when she was a little kid – but she was about a hundred percent sure that it wasn't like she was then. Her tires screeched a little as she took turns too fast, and the stops too abruptly.

"Away from here," Maya said, taking a short breath as she was heading out of the city, "But I need you to think of someone that you trust. Someone out of the public eye that we can use as a contact, that'll have access to Fitz."

"I already sent Abby to DC," Olivia told her, and Maya smiled as she turned to look at her daughter.

Olivia tightened her grip, because Maya didn't bother to slow the car down as she did so.

"You're good," Maya told her, and Olivia nodded, "How do you contact her? You need to tell her everything. Everything that's going to happen."

"Of course, in order to do that I would have to know everything that's going to happen."

"I'll fill you in once we get there."

"Where? Where are we going mom?" Olivia asked her, turning in her seat as Maya turned to put both eyes on the road instead of one, "Because I'm thinking that you owe me some answers right about now."

"We'll have plenty of time to catch up once we get there."

"Where? Where the _hell_ are we going?"

"A house," Maya answered her, "A house that Dominic built for us to run away together. He wanted me to run away with him, to start over. Eli locked me up a week later. No one knew about it."

"He built you a - " Olivia stopped because it sounded a little too familiar, "Did you love him?"

"Where do you think I was going?"


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Hey guys, sorry this took so long – it took me a while to get around to this chapter… that's also why it's so short. There's not a whole hell of a lot going on with Mellie, so **her** next two chapters will probably be about half the length of normal chapters. Enjoy. :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Sixteen

Sunday Night.

Mellie was quiet the whole time that who she now assumed was Olivia's father, Eli Pope, and Tom escorted her out of the building, and out to the back lot where the cars generally waited to bring them where ever they had been planning on going. The cars were all lined up, and they walked her right down the line until they reached the end. She was half expecting them to have her kneel down in the shadows of the last SUV and Tom would put a bullet in the back of her skull. She glanced back at him, and realized that he was looking down – but Eli had been watching her. She felt him grip her wrist as they turned the corner and she saw a car that hadn't been their earlier in the day waiting for them. Eli opened the door and threw her into the backseat. She heard the jingling of keys as he tossed them over the roof to Tom before the door slammed.

"You can't do this to me," Mellie said as the two of them climbed into the front seat, "I am the First Lady of the United States of America."

"Yeah," Eli replied, as Tom pulled out and started driving away, "I know. That's why we didn't inject you with this."

He pulled up a small needle and showed it to her.

"And if you keep your mouth shut, we won't have to use it, either."

"You'll never get away with – "

Mellie's eyes flickered open again with her back against a cement wall. Her breath was sharp in her chest, like there was something there, but she knew there wasn't. It was more of a dry feeling, like she was dehydrated, and her lungs were not exactly working as they should. She was sitting on the floor, her legs out in front of her. She was dirty, she could feel her hair was out of position. Where ever they had brought her, however they had brought her out of the car, it hadn't been nice. Her leg was sore, and she shifted so that she was not leaning so heavily on it. Rolling her eyes, she looked around the room. It was dark, and like she was sitting in a cement block. Well, it wasn't _like_ she was sitting in a cement block, she was.

She tried to sit up, and then got dizzy and paused for a minute. Breath ragged, she tried to stand up, but then crawled away from the wall and towards the cot on the edge corner of the small, very dimly lit room. She pulled herself up onto it, sitting on the very edge as she leaned back, trying not to look right into the light. Even the dim was on the verge of giving her a headache.

"Where the hell am I?" She breathed to herself.

"Wonderland," She heard a girl's voice through the barred door.

She frowned.

"Right?" The voice continued, "I saw 'em bringing you in. You asked where you were – you're in Wonderland, Princess. Gone down the rabbit hole. Except, most people don't pop back up."

"Who are you?"

"Well, isn't that a question. Where would I start?"

"A name, maybe?" Mellie was getting bored with this, rolling her eyes.

"Which one do you want?" She asked and Mellie tried to peer through the bars.

"Just - where the fuck are we?" Mellie asked, and there was silence, "Hello?"

"Why're you going to bother asking if you're not going to listen?"

"Wonderland?"

"The headquarters of B613."

"Right," Mellie let it mull over in her head – of course.

"You're causing quite a stir around here."

"How long was I out?"

"You think they let me have a watch?" The voice called back, "I don't know – I guess they brought you in like an hour ago? It's an estimate, but if they keep you here long enough – does it really matter?"

"Headquarters."

"Actually, I don't know that it's headquarters," The voice started to ramble and Mellie was starting to come around, "It's probably not. There's a glass of water in your cell somewhere. Don't worry, it's safe to drink. They – they wouldn't kill you like that. It's not their style. So don't worry about it. You sound dehydrated. Take a drink."

Mellie narrowed her gaze as she peered through the gloom, and looked around her area. There was an unsightly stain over by the door to the cell – a dark puddle that stained the cement. There was, in fact, a glass of water on the floor by the bed, so she reached over and picked it up. She took a sip, and it burned slightly as it slipped down her throat. She held it away until the pain subsided, and then took another drink as she could almost feel the cells around her lungs taking in the water. She took a breath, and started to feel a little bit better as she walked over towards the bars. She wanted to get a look at the person she had been speaking with, if that was at all possible. She walked over and looked through the bars, trying not to think about the grossly discolored spot beneath her.

"Who are you?" Mellie asked as she peered into the room, and a girl came into view from the darkness of the next cell across the hall.

"I don't know that we've met."

The girl walked into the light from the hallway that was bleeding into their cells. It took her a minute, and then realized that she was looking right across through the bars at Lindsey Dwyer – Quinn. They had changed her name to Quinn something or other, but the point was she was face to face with one of Olivia's people. Of course, because even in the bowls of hell – there had to be something.

"Quinn."

"Madame First Lady."

"Don't call me that," Mellie snapped at the irony, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I thought I could play them," Quinn said, looking around, gesturing with her eyes at their surroundings, "But they sure showed me. The kicker is, it's not going to matter in about a week, anyway."

"What?"

"They kidnapped the First Lady," Quinn said, and Mellie furrowed her brow, "The White House isn't covering for them anymore. They took precious Olivia Pope, so no one at the White House is going to protect them from the public eye anymore. They announced last night that you were kidnapped going from the airport to the White House Grounds from the airport. The press and Media is going insane. I'm assuming that's why you're still alive. Or maybe they're just playing with you. Hell if I know."

"Do you know what happened to Harrison?" Mellie's curiosity was too much for her.

"He was here for a while," Quinn said confidently, "He had them convinced that he was going to switch sides. That was, until the prisoner got loose."

"The Prisoner?"

"Some major prisoner they had down in the hole," Quinn told her, "If you listen around here, you pick up most of what's going on. Damn super-spies can't keep their mouths shut. Anyway, they thought that he was the one who let 'em go. He wasn't, of course, but they put him down here for maybe a night – then killed him."

"They killed him? And he didn't even let the person go?"

"B613 doesn't play around," Quinn replied as Mellie headed back to her cot, "They don't care how clever you are."

"Why are they doing this?" Mellie asked, and Quinn shrugged.

"I think they're all sorta pissed about the boss getting so pissed about Olivia and The President. It's a little too Helen of Troy for them," Quinn said, "And I can't say I don't agree. But I guess you give up your vote when you sign up."


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: So, if you guys didn't realize, starting with Mellie last Chapter, we went a little back in time I'm going to go back and label it, but Olivia and her mom going away was Monday…Mellie arriving at B613 was Sunday Night…and Fitz is planning on throwing in Friday, just giving you guys a head's up. And I swear that the time periods will get way easier from here on… Enjoy :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Seventeen

Monday.

Cyrus was waiting outside of the residence, almost as if to see if Fitz would even come out of it at all for the day. He couldn't just announce that he was going to quit on Friday amongst Olivia and Mellie going missing. The American people were panicking, given that was their own fault – but they needed to know that at least he was still sitting in the Oval Office. Well, given the past few months it probably didn't matter who exactly was sitting in there, just that someone was sitting there, that they could think that they were in charge. He took a deep breath, trying to figure out whether or not to knock. Just as he was raising his fist to do so, the door swung open and Fitz was standing in walking cast. He looked – normal.

"Sir?" Cyrus blinked because he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Good morning, Cy," Fitz said, adjusting his tie and making centered.

"Sir, are you – " Cyrus broke off, taking a deep breath as they started their otherwise would be normal walk down to the West Wing.

"Cy, I have a very busy day."

"Is there a reason you're carrying a briefcase?"

"No reason, just things that I have to keep on me today," Fitz told him, and Cyrus furrowed his eyebrows, "Listen I'm going to need a car at about three-thirty."

"A car? To where?"

"A car," Fitz said as he walked into the Oval Office, and looked out the window.

Cyrus stepped up so that he could see out the window, and see the crowd that was out by the gates. In place of where Olivia's shrine from the people had been months ago, there was one almost twice the size that was for Mellie now. He watched Fitz watch the crowd for a moment, people as well as reporters, people taking pictures of the candles, teddy bears, and things that they had left along the White House fence. On knew that the Secret Service was taking an extra eye on the cameras, waiting for someone to drop something that they shouldn't. Like a bomb – it would be a bomb – the way things had been going. It would definitely be a bomb.

"Tonight I'm going to have to disappear," Fitz said, rather off the cuff – and Cyrus gave him a strange look, "Hal will be with me, don't worry. I just need to ask you a favor."

"What's that?"

"It has to be somewhere nearby," Fitz said and Cyrus took a step back.

"Oh, no," Cyrus said.

"It'll only be for a night, two tops," Fitz told him, and Cyrus narrowed his gaze.

"Are you insane? What're you going to do after that?"

"I don't know Fitz said, "I only get the plan a few days in advance. For now – "

"The plan? What plan?"

"I cut a deal."

"You what?"

"I cut a deal," Fitz said, "I can't tell you who with – I can't tell you anything. Except – spoke with Olivia last night."

"I should have known."

"What?"

"Which devil did you cut it with?"

"Hopefully the more sympathetic," Fitz said, "It's just that for the plan to work – I have to disappear tonight."

"Says…?"

"Cy."

"Ok, fine," Cyrus said, "I'll make up the guest bedroom for you."

"And if anyone – I mean anyone comes looking for me…I'm talking the Devil Himself."

"You're playing with fire."

"It's a risk."

"How long?"

"Two nights," Fitz gave a more sturdy answer, "Hal will be there too."

"Yes, because that's such a comfort," Cyrus said, "Especially since Satan will be coming to look for you – I assume. And it'll be the first place he'll look."

"Exactly why he won't actually expect to find me there," Fitz said, and Cyrus took a breath.

"God, I hope you know what you're getting yourself into," Cyrus said, and Fitz rolled his eyes.

"I'm not a moron," Fitz said, taking a deep breath as he went over and sat down behind his desk, "I know exactly what kind of stuff I'm getting myself into. Don't worry about me, Cy."

"You're – "

"That'll be it, Cy," Fitz said as he leaned back in his desk chair.

"Well, do you have time in your busy schedule to make an appearance this afternoon?"

"I've told you, I'm going out this afternoon."

"The American People haven't seen you in a month. They need to see their leader. Especially in light of recent events. They need to see you, the Fly boy they've elected because it will calm them. You're an embodiment of where the American dream can turn into. They need to see you," Cyrus even knew that he was rambling as he spoke, but if he had to address another press room like the one he had the night before - "Sir, people are panicking."

"People are always panicking," Fitz said, "If it's not obesity it's starving kids in other countries, exploding churches or child soldiers in Africa. Now their panicking the one time that they probably should be panicking, and you want me to calm them down? You're sure you don't want me to find some at to use junO all this for political gain?"

"Sir. The American Dream -"

"The American Dream is -"

"Hope," Cyrus said it quickly, so as to cut him off before he said anything else, "The American Dream is hope to about three hundred thousand people. And hope is a very scary thing to lose at any time. Now especially."

"I don't have time."

"So make time. This is your country."

"My country? Don't you dare for one second think that I have not sacrificed enough for this country," Fitz was scary when he was angry - probably because it didn't show very often, "I served in black ops missions where the actual hero's never got their honors. Not even after they died for their country. I served myself, I traded my soul in service to this country and I was rewarded by way of imprisonment - a nice one, I'll give them that. I was shot in the head, and I watched my son die because of my trying to do my job. The woman I love more than anything in the world was kidnapped. And the mother of my children was taken, and probably will be murdered in the next few days. I'd say that's enough for one lifetime What else can they take? What more could they possibly want from me?"

"Abraham Lincoln lost the love of his life as a young man. He lost his mother even younger," Cyrus said, and Fitz gave him a look like he was trying to see where he was going, "He married a girl he could barely stomach, lost two children, and would have buried three if he hadn't been shot in the head himself. One he lost in the White House."

"What's your point?"

"Lincoln freed the slaves," Cyrus said pointedly, "Don't you tell me he didn't suffer for it."

"And I'm-"

"Saving the country from this toxicity that call themselves B613."

"You and I both now we wouldn't survive a day without them."

"No. But we can definitely live without Rowan."

"That's not on me," Fitz said, taking a breath even though they both knew it was, "That's not my job - not my burden. I'm choosing to save my family. Save liv. Save my own life - because - because - because I can see a way out of this for four of us. Then things will cool down on their own."

Fitz was in tears because he knew what he was going to have to do.

"I don't want this. Any of it."

"It's your choice."

"I don't want that either."

There was silence for a minute in which Fitz fought to compose himself, and Cyrus stood watching him. He dabbled at the tears that had gone down his cheek and took a long, and deep rattling breath. Then he swallowed as he seems to be summoning up enough gall to say something.

"Interrupt regular programming," He said as he fixed his cuffs, "I'll speak candidly about being back. That's it."

"You have to address Mellie or it's useless."

"I'll think of something."

"I'll call down to the press room."

"Cy?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm still resigning Friday."

Cyrus skipped the call and went straight from the Oval to the empty Press Secretary's office. He tried not to pay attention while he was in there, he tried not to think about any of the three people that had last held the position. Olivia, Britta, and then James. All destroyed by the administration, each of them destroyed. Two by bullets and a third who was still up in the air physically, but emotionally - inwardly. She would probably never be the same. But then again, none of them would be getting out of this unscathed. James' things were still everywhere. He tried to stem a tear as he grabbed the contact list that he needed from the drawer.

"Mr. Beene," One of the reporters caught him coming out, "What's going on? You're never down here if you can avoid it."

"Attention," Cyrus called to the entire room, "All of you, listen up because I'm only going to say this once."

The room went so quiet he could hear the fans cooling their over used laptops.

"The president is going to address the nation in about twenty minutes from the press room," Cyrus said quickly, "He'll speak shortly, and will not be taking any questions."

"Is this in lieu of his scheduled address on Friday?"

"I'm not taking questions either, but no. That is still on."

"Is it true he'll be resigning the presidency?"

"I just said no questions," Cyrus said on his way to the door, backing up to it, "My God, you people - today is not a day for questions."

"He seems in better spirits then when Miss Pope disappeared," a man towards the back pipe up, and Cyrus froze, "He was slamming doors and screaming for a month before he took off MIA for weeks. Is this White House sure that Miss Pope wasn't - more to the President than was let on?"

Cyrus gave him an incredulous look as if to say "I'm not even going to signify that with a response" as he left the room. He thought of about eight better responses to that question, three of which he could actually use, as he headed to the press room. The secret service was giving it a sweep as Fitz got himself settled up at the podium. He looked like hell - but that was almost good because that's what the American People would be expecting. They would see the boot on his foot, but the president' s personal injuries were usually saved for slow news days. Today would most certainly not qualify.

The press seemed to understand that while they all had questions, today was not the day to ask them. And the sight of their leader in such rough shape was enough to nail that idea to their foreheads as they filed into the room. Cyrus gave them all a certain kind of look as he walked from the front to the back of the room. To his usual post - watching over everyone like a hawk. Vulture. He was a vulture, not a hawk.

"I'm going to make this brief," Fitz said as the cameras all flipped on, "The events of these last few months have effected us all. Some more heavily than others. Myself - I have been effected by quite e few blows. And I appreciate the time this country has give me to try and put myself back together. Because, I like you, needed a break from everything so that I could come back and be your president. That is until the baton is passed off. Last night, in the early hours of last night America's First Lady was reported missing. While the DC police, the FBI and the CIA assure me that they are on it. I would like to lead the country this morning in prayer for the First Lady, and her safe return. It's hell losing a child. I'd also like to pray for the thousands of children who have gone missing, and their families. The parents of any child that was lost this year. It's a tall order. I don't think even I can do it with words. So let's just all now our heads for a four minutes' moment of silence or prayer."

He was perfect this was a at right out of the book. Had Fitz really been paying attention to what he and Olivia had been doing. With a less than five minute speech, Fitz had just split the bread and fish and calmed down the entire country. He got them to take a minute and breathe. The sky wasn't falling, not for them. He was hinting but not saying that the first lady had a bad time and she had just sort of wandered off. It wasn't quite their plan to make B613 cover their own ass. But that wasn't exactly the point right now.

"America calmer?" Fitz asked as they headed down the back hallway towards the Oval again.

"Yes, sir," Cyrus said as they walked.

"Good," He said as they stepped into the office, "That was probably one of the last presidential things you'll see me do. Make a note of it for your memoirs."

"My memoirs, sir?"

"At this rate we both know at the rate I'm going I probably won't be writing mine," Fitz attempted a joke, and Cyrus pondered it briefly before laughing to try to make it less awkward.

"Good one, Sir."

"The car, Cy?"

"Of course, sir."

"And Cyrus?"

"What?"

"I'm serious. About the memoirs. If anyone's going to make it out of this presidency alive - it's going to be you. Make sure you tell this crazy ass story right. As best you can."

"Yes, sir."


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Hello loves – enjoy the chapter! Thanks so much for the pacients on this one – I promise it'll pay off before you know it. After this chapter, it's going to escalate pretty quickly…. Enjoy :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Eighteen

Monday.

Jake wandered around the city that night until he inevitably ended up down at the station. He had been expecting at least a little light teasing from the other guys – but he didn't quite know where else to go as opposed to finding a hotel. He needed a little bit of shelter from the night, so that he could clear his head. Any thoughts of getting any sleep at all was out the window with Olivia finding everything out. But, at the very least he needed a space where he could lay down, or sit down and just mull things over without having to worry about other things. He must have had a pretty terrifying face on when he walked through where everyone was standing around – because they didn't even make a sound as he walked through the lobby, the main office, and the holding cells to the back room where they kept a cot.

Olivia wasn't an idiot, she had said it herself the other night that she understood what was going on. That she knew all of their lives – at least the three of them, who knows who else – were clinging on to the fact that she played along. That she lived in exile so that they could all live, in a way. That had been the deal when Command had released him from the hole. He was to help him get Olivia away from the country, away from her mess with Fitz – and keep her away. That was his job, that was his mission. He took a deep breath, finding a ball from the corner and tossing it up toward the ceiling and catching it. She wasn't an idiot. He would just go and talk to her tomorrow – in the morning, maybe walk her to work. That was if she was still there in the morning.

He just couldn't get over how easily she had kicked him out – like she had known the whole time, and had been waiting for a chance to get rid of him. A chance to get rid of him, like he was nothing to her – because he wasn't anything. Fitz, she would scream and cry and fight and protect until the end of the world under any sort issue that anyone had with him. Any mudslinging no matter how useless or ridiculous – she would be on his side. As long as it had almost nothing to do with Fitz feelings about her – which for some reason she always doubted – she was behind him a hundred percent. She would defend him if it meant debating with someone until the world stopped spinning. Her mother, a woman who had done almost nothing but lie to her says one accusation and he was gone. Out of the picture without even a question. Of course, Maya had the added bonus of telling the truth about everything – but that wasn't the point. Fitz wasn't perfect either.

"Olivia," Jake gasped as she walked out of her flat the next morning, and predictably she tried to ignore him, "I get you're mad, but we do need to talk."

"Go away."

She said it like she was shooing away a stray dog. It was just enough to send his temper off the handle. He was always teetering on the edge, it's what came with being beaten down during every sort of training that he went through. The way that he was treated for the majority of his life – when Olivia decided that she was just going to do things her way, or decide that she – like everyone else in his life didn't need him. He grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her down into the alley so that he wouldn't make a scene right out in the street.

"Seriously? Jake let go of me or I will call the cops, I promise you."

He was the cops, but that wasn't the point. He had blown his cover – he had blown everything. There was nothing that they could go back to. There was no playing house anymore.

"I just need to make sure that – "

"I don't do anything dumb?" Olivia asked him, "Like hopping on a plane and flying back to Fitz?"

"That's exactly what I'm afraid you're going to do," Jake said, and Olivia rolled her eyes – as per usual, "Your father was very specific. If you do that – he'll kill me. Which you might not really care about – "

"Stop acting like a spoiled kid."

"He'll kill him, without even blinking," Jake said, and Olivia swallowed hard, "And then he'll kill you. But he'll make you watch him die first."

"Relax, I'm not going to do anything stupid," Olivia told him as he let go of her, "But I swear, if I ever see your face again I will call the police. I do not care what my father does to you. Just stay away from me."

A little relief washing over him, he took a step back to calm down – and then she was gone. By the time he popped his head out to the street, she was all the way down at the end of the lane and was turning the corner. He thought for a second to run after her and pull her away, to explain other things to her – but as soon as the idea crossed his mine his window of opportunity was gone. She wasn't going to let him anywhere near her ever again, and it would only be a matter of time before her mother gained her trust. If she hadn't already tried, or was on the way to doing so. He took a deep breath as he went towards the front door – to grab a few things that he might need – and a backpack. He tossed everything in as he tried to put together a plan.

Jake knew better than to test Olivia on her word to call the cops, to raise the alarm. If for whatever reason Rowan smelled something fishy, or caught wind that something was up everything about a cover would be that much more difficult. That his little princess might be being treated as anything less than by anyone but him – it wouldn't fly. He took a deep breath as he went over it again in his head. He could keep up a ruse about him and Olivia as long as Rowan thought that nothing was going on. If he could watch from afar just enough to fill him in – just long enough for him to come up with an escape plan – he could do it. He could manage his way out of this.

"Hello?" Jake answered his second phone as he walked down the street.

There was only one person who called him on that phone. There was no reason for pleasantries or waiting for him to announce himself – but he did it anyway. He thought that there was a certain part of him going through the motions that Rowan liked. Like he was a puppet, and Rowan was always pulling the strings It made him want to puke right there on the sidewalk.

"Jake."

How was it that he always sounded sarcastic? Or at least like he was mildly entertained by everything that happened in front of him. Like he was sitting in the Dictator's box in the middle of the Roman Republic's biggest gladiator match of the season. The man was insane, but he did have a decent amount of power.

"Yes, sir. How's you're day going?"

"It was going fine," Rowan replied, and Jake swallowed hard – waiting for the ball to drop, "Until it was reported to me that the last sound heard from your flat was at ten pm last night. And now our bugs are registering unresponsive."

"Yeah," Jake said, taking a deep breath, "I meant to tell you – Olivia found one of them last night. She made me go through the flat and find all of them. She's not an idiot. I'll put them back tonight, find new spots for them once she's asleep."

"Is your cover blown?"

"No, sir," Jake said, taking a deep breath as he sat down on a bench, tossing a pebbling straight down into the pavement, "She ah – she immediately thought that it was you. I let her think that you put them in there before we moved in. I have it all under control, sir."

"I know you would," Rowan replied and Jake nodded, even though he knew he couldn't see him, "That's why I put my best man on this."

"I understand, sir," Jake said, taking a deep breath, "Has there been any more information on the prisoner, sir?"

"The Prisoner?" He said, then sighed, "It was the new kid – Harrison. Makes sense given his previous employment. It was evident that he had read my private file on her and – he knew the truth. The truth is a very dangerous thing. Eat from the tree of knowledge, and you shall surely die. And even if it wasn't, whoever let her out got the message. We shot him, execution style in the middle of the hall. We left him there for a while before we cleaned him up. Sent him in a box to his mother."

"That's a little excessive, no?"

"I don't think that's your call," Rowan replied, his amusement gone from his voice, and Jake's ears perked up.

"Sorry, sir," Jake said, standing up again, looking around for somewhere else to walk, "I won't make that mistake again, sir."

"You're damn right," Rowan nearly spat into the phone – Jake had to fight the urge to clear out his ear, as if his saliva could go through the phone, "I want those microphones up and fully operational as soon as possible."

"She'll walk in on me coming home from work now," Jake said, checking his watch for the time, "I'll do it as soon as she's asleep. Promise."

"Yes, you will," Rowan replied, and Jake paused to wait to cross the street, "I'll be contact."

"Of course, Sir," Jake said, and he flipped the old phone shut as he made himself cross the street.

He made himself busy for the rest of the day, making sure that he stayed close to that if needed – he could report on Olivia's actions if Rowan called again. He didn't want to. He wanted to run, everything inside of him was telling him to run. But there was no way to do it. If he ran, Rowan would bury Olivia into the depths of B613 – no one she loved or cared about would ever see or hear from her again. She would be a prisoner for being born into the wrong family. He couldn't let that happen, and her not letting him anywhere near her meant that the best way to help her escape was to stall. Stall until she could get it together enough to realize that running away was the right answer. It had been so quick for her to realize last time – why based on their conversation make it seem like that wasn't something that she was going to get on her own?

"You seem strange tonight, Jake," Father Dean said as Jake walked with him to their second group of homeless of the night.

"What do you mean?"

"More – troubled - than usual."

"Troubled?" Jake questioned as they walked, and the priest nodded as they headed over towards the edge of the Thames instead of continuing in their trek to the next stop.

"Jake, there is no hiding that you have a certain amount of deamons that are on your shoulders," He said, "I think it's time we have a serious talk – "

"I can't tell you -"

"Ok, let's go off what I've concluded for myself, then," Father Dean said, taking a deep breath, "You're a hitman. Or something like that."

"Something like that."

"That's why you left the United States, and came here."

"Something like that."

"And your wife – you've been lying to her," He continued, and Jake furrowed his brow, nodding, "She doesn't know who you are. You've either never showed her – or she doesn't care enough to look into it."

"Something like that," Jake said, nodding again.

"And now you're on edge."

"I think they're going to find me," Jake said, taking a deep breath, "It's her dad – my wife's dad's who I was/am whatever – working for. She'll be fine. I just have to…"

"Are you going to run?" Father Dean asked him.

"What does it matter to you if I do?"

"It doesn't," Father Dean replied, "Your actions or inactions have no effect on me. But they have an effect on you. How long do you think you can hide from this guy? And is that really how you want to live? Everyone has to deal on day with the consequences of what they've done in their lives. Maybe this is your penance."

"No offense, Father," Jake said, stretching his back as he looked up at the sky, "But even when my mother thought she was going something good by bringing us to church – it wasn't catholic. I don't believe in confession, or in penance. I don't think that God punishes us for our mistakes– if he does exist.

"A popular idea," Father Dean replied as he looked up at him purposefully, "And I understand that – but try and tell me that you don't feel better me knowing what I do. That you don't feel somehow at ease about your life now that you don't feel like you have to guard and preface everything that you say to me? To everyone around you?"

Jake remained silent.

"As far as penance, it's all symbolic," He replied, "God forgives those who ask for it, before they ask for it. You've got that part. But he doesn't save you from your earthly consequences that come with your trespasses. Eventually – "

"Yeah, Karma," Jake said, and Father Dean paused, "What goes around, comes around, right?"

"Jake – you have the chance to atone," He said, "I'd be more than willing…"

"No thanks, pops."

"Jake – you don't have to do it to me," He said, "Just make sure that maybe you try doing the right thing."

"The right thing."

"Yes."

"And who decides what that is?" Jake asked him, and Father Dean sort of made a face.

"Jake –"

"Yeah?"

"The right thing is often a whole hell of a lot simpler than you think."

"Thanks."

The old man seemed to understand that that was about enough 'spiritual counseling' for one night, and shut up. He took a deep breath as Father Dean led him back to their well-beaten path through London in silence. In fact, the whole rest of the night went by in silence until they were done. He did an extra lap around the area near Olivia's apartment, making sure that she had ample time to get in and get to bed. Then, he walked up to the front door – very slowly easing into the front room.

There was no one there, the flat was empty, and there was no evidence of a struggle. But there was also absolutely no evidence that she would be back. He could tell because certain things were missing, including a picture of herself and Fitz that she had kept in a shoebox under the bed. To be honest, the whole box was gone – and he understood what that meant. She probably took off, he would assume with her mother. He had been doing things like this far too long to act dumb about what had just happened. He just wished that he knew where she was to make certain that she was safe – and happy-ier. At least a little bit happier.

He looked around the place, and then pulled the extra 'bugs' out of his bag, and wired up the apartment. Making sure that every single one was in perfect placement. He finished, and activated them all from his phone before turning it off – like he usually did for the night.

"There you are," He said softly, just loud enough for the microphones to pick it up, "You're wired in, Sir."

He could imagine Rowan's deep amused voice, "Thank you, Captain Ballard."

He nodded to himself, and exited quietly out through the front door. He had an eight to ten hour head start.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Well, sorry this took me so long, but enjoy it my friends :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Nineteen

Monday.

It was a good thing that his moment of silence speech that morning had gone so well, because he had pulled it all right out of his ass as he was standing up there. He was glad that it did go as well as it did, and that Cyrus was at least pleased. He was a little afraid that it wasn't going to go over well, but seeing the press buzz around like normal, and to see people start to walk away from the Mellie-Memorial they had made out along the fence. He considered his job done for the day as he headed towards the car with Hal. He had locked his suitcase into the resolute desk – the safest place that he could think of to put it all. He looked at his normal phone as he put his Maya/Olivia phone into his other pocket.

"Are you ready to go, Sir?" Hal asked as he walked into the Oval, Cyrus had long left.

He thought maybe he had kind of over stepped it by giving him a hint at what was coming. He knew he wasn't going to be able to stay in his old life when this was all over. He wasn't exactly sure what his new life was going to entail, but he knew it wouldn't be somewhere Cyrus could follow them. They were going to have to disappear. The memoirs would have to come from someone else, and he couldn't think of anyone better than Cyrus to tell it. It was his story, he had crafted it all by himself anyway. He took a breath as he checked all his pockets, making sure that he had everything he was going to need for the next couple of hours.

"So where are we going?" Hal asked, and Fitz just sort of gave him a look over the back of the seat.

"I think you know better than to ask that," Fitz told him, and Hal nodded as he drove away from the White House, "You know, when this is all over – you're really going to have to explain all of this running around to me."

"This one's going to be pretty self-explanatory," Fitz replied as he leaned back, "Just remember to stay back, this is a 'friendly' meeting."

"'Friendly'?" Hal had been watching him in the rearview mirror as he said it.

"Or as friendly as you can be with a guy who killed your son, lied to your face about it, then kidnapped – well, Mellie," Fitz said it all very quickly.

This wasn't part of any plan, this was a quick drop that he had thought of to try and make a last stitch effort for Mellie, that was it. It didn't matter if Hal was aware of what was going on or not – but the best idea was that he knew. That way he could be prepared to help him out if things got dicey. Hal was the second best driver – Tom had been the best, which was almost laughable now. How had he not realized? Tom must have been laughing at him for years, he had been too good. Hal pulled into a parking garage that Fitz knew Eli had used before. It was ok, he knew that Eli would show up. In his gut, he knew that this was the only way to get Mellie back to his kids – if that were even a possibility of something to happen. That was why he had offered up the Olive Branch.

Taking the heat off of Mellie's disappearance, take the heat off of them for a little while. That was as big an Olive Branch as he was going to give to a man like Eli Pope, and that was all he was getting. It was good, because it gave him a chance to just let Mellie wander back onto the White House grounds, no questions asked. He had a feeling that it wouldn't happen. That there was no way Eli was going to release her – but that was fine. He just knew that it had to be this afternoon. Any chance at speaking with the man civily after this wasn't going to work.

"Yes, Mr. President?" Eli walked out of the shadows as Fitz stepped out of the car.

"You're quick," Fitz said, leaning against the car – not getting too close to Eli.

"What's this about you retiring on Friday? Are the rumors that I'm hearing true?"

"I don't know," Fitz said, taking a deep breath, "I might – that's not why we're here. I sent you a memo for today because I just have one question."

"Yeah? What is that?"

"I want you to return Mellie," Fitz said, knowing better than to even try an emotional approach.

"That's not going to happen," Eli said, and Fitz nodded.

"Alright then," Fitz said, "You realize – you shouldn't have done this. If you do decide to give her back, it might be easier for you. If not – well, everyone ends up paying for their actions somehow."

"How dare you, you spoiled child," Eli went off, "I am a soldier. I am serving my country."

"Maybe for a while you did," Fitz said, taking a deep breath as he leaned on the open car door, "But somewhere along the line, you decided it would be better to save your little princess from the big bad world. She never needed saving – if you knew her at all, you knew that. You've fucked her life up way more than I could have ever done. So go on, sit in your kitchen and drink your wine alone. Because Liv won't be you. Not now, not ever."

"Liv?" Eli started to taunt him, but Fitz just shook his head and got into his car.

Olivia was disappearing with her mother tonight no matter what Eli did – but he didn't know that. That was why Fitz was disappearing too, to give off the illusion that they had tricked him. That they had magically managed to escape right under his nose without all that much effort on either side. That was the idea, to make him angry. Because, as he had shown when he had kidnapped him at the pentagon, whispering something stupid about how Olivia had tasted had sent him of on a long ass rambling monologue about nothing. About how Fitz was a spoiled prep school brat that didn't deserve Olivia – all things, minus Olivia's name in particular, he had heard his entire life. From everyone from the bullies on the playground to his own father – Reston in the debates. It hadn't been anything new. Eli's temper would be his own downfall, and he'd be lying if he didn't admit that he was looking forward to it.

"Sir," Hal said as they drove away from the parking garage, "Where to now, sir?"

"The White House," Fitz told him, "I have to pick a few things up."

"Yes, sir," Hal said, and Fitz took a deep breath.

"When we do go, we're going to have to pull a Scrambled duck hunt, ok?" Fitz said and Hal nodded, "But no one can know. And I'll be in some random car, not the last one."

"Yes, Sir," Hal replied, and Fitz nodded as he headed back to the White House, "Anything else?"

"Do you have a family, Hal?" Fitz asked him, and he shook his head, "No one at all?"

"No, sir," Hal replied, and Fitz nodded.

"Ok," He said as the car pulled back into the back entrance to the House, so he could get out.

"Sir," Daniel came running to where Fitz was standing.

"Yes, Daniel?"

"You have a visitor," He replied, "Mr. Beene told us to have her waiting for you up in the residence."

"Who is she?"

"Said her name was Michelle something," Daniel said, "Cy saw her and told me to have her wait in your living room."

"Cyrus had you let her into the residence?" Fitz asked racking his brain, and Daniel nodded as they started up towards the elevator.

He was trying to figure out who it could be all the way up, and was starting to prepare himself. He balled up his fists, then let them go again before the elevator doors opened and they walked out onto the landing. He ran down the hall and went to the Oval to get his suit case before getting back on and going up to the residence. He took a deep breath as the doors opened again. Daniel stopped, and stayed in the elevator while Hal walked with him to the door.

"Sir?" Hal said, waiting for him to tell him whether or not he needed him to come into the residence with him.

"Hold on," Fitz said, partially opening the door, and looking inside.

A familiar looking redhead was sitting just inside the door waiting for him. It was Gabby, or whatever her name was – the girl who worked for Olivia. She had been part of the team, right? She looked at him rather expectantly and he turned back to Hal without even bothering to shut the door.

"Wait out here, I should be fine," He told him, and Hal nodded as Fitz went into the residence, closing the door behind him.

"Good call," Gabby chuckled as Fitz walked into the room.

"Thanks, Gabby."

"Abby," She corrected him – and as soon as she did so, he remembered Olivia correcting him once or twice about it.

"Abby – right, that's it," He said, walking in, and she was sort of looking around.

"None of it's bugged, I promise," Fitz said, "I have it swept too often. Besides, not even the secret service is allowed in here. You're worried about the White House logs, right? That's why you told them your name's Michelle?"

"Of course I am," She replied and Fitz nodded as he led her into the living room.

"I'm assuming Liv sent you?"

"We've been communicating through encrypted email since she left," Abby said, and Fitz nodded, "She sent me an email yesterday night saying that I needed to come and find you. Stay close."

"Well, here I am – for the next couple of hours anyway," He said, "How do I know I can trust you?"

"She's in England," Abby told him, "And she kicked Jake out of the house – you might like to hear that."

"Yeah," Fitz said, taking a deep breath.

"And she's done nothing but whine about you, in our emails," Abby said, "I could probably tell you something personal if you want."

"I'm good," He said.

This was the person that Olivia had sent in her place when she was hurt. That meant a lot, and it certainly meant that she was someone Olivia thought she could trust. Another person that they could filter messages through. He took a deep breath as he played with the Maya/Olivia phone in his pocket.

"You're supposed to come with me?" He asked, and Abby nodded.

"Alright," He said, taking a deep breath, "Well, let's go then. Did you bring a bag?"

His plan for escape was simple – well, it was actually anything but simple – it was just that the idea behind it was incredibly simple. He had ordered six unalarmed, untracked incognito cars to leave the White House at intervals of fifteen minutes. The first was going to the nearest airport, and acting like it was dropping him off at the airport. The second was going to a safe house in Virginia, the third to another smaller airport that supported planes that were his plane's size. The Fourth would actually be carrying him, Abby, and Hal to Cyrus' house, the fifth was going to drive west, like he was going to drive all the way to Santa Barbara. The Sixth was going to the hanger that carried Airforce one, a second airport. Seeing as Cyrus' house was going to be one of the first places he'd think of anyway, he figured that it would be best if he just used the cover up as a cover up to get to Cyrus' house as well. All of the things were just as likely as the next, and no one would know which one he had gotten into. All the destinations were as likely as he next.

"It's in the kitchen," Abby said, and Fitz nodded as he went to pack himself one.

"I'll be right back," He told her as he headed towards his back bedroom, "Make yourself at home."

He went into his room and shut the door, throwing everything he would need – including the envelopes that he would need from the briefcase into a suitcase with a couple of changes of clothes. He would keep his normal phone as long as possible, then toss it into one of the other cars, with Abby's and Hal's, so that they couldn't be traced. The current favorite was that they would toss them into the car that was heading to the safe house in Virginia. Like they had all been spooked and were running away instead of preparing to stand up to these people. That was probably what they were going to do.

Fitz walked out of his bedroom with his suitcase rolling behind him, and Abby jumped up off the couch to go with him out the door and down to the basement again. Hal met them just outside the door, and rode the elevator down with them. Fitz took his iPhone out, he wouldn't be needing it anymore for the time being, and set it on the back seat of the second car. He left the door open to it, and looked expectantly at both Abby and Hal. Each of them looked momentarily at each other, then placed their phones on either side of his. This was a sort of turning point, and Fitz realized as he led them down to the fourth car that was waiting in the line-up. They climbed into the back – the divider was up so not even the driver knew who or what was in the back of the car. He had had the secret service shut off the security camera for a few minutes so that there wouldn't even be a record of them going down there. Daniel had been on controls. Fitz looked over at Hal and nodded.

They were silent while they waited for the drivers to come down and get into their assigned cars. They had special instructions to park the cars in the garages of their places. A private garage at each airport, a stretch of the street with no camera's in front of Cyrus' house, the garage at the house in Santa Barbara, and the garage at the house in Virginia. They were to shut the car off, and leave it in the garage and call a taxi to bring them back. In the case of Santa Barbara, they had plane tickets back to DC waiting for them at will call. That was it, he had thought of everything he could think of to make sure that no one would know where he was. No one except Cyrus and the two people that were sitting next to him.

There was no going back from here.

The words entered his head as easily as any other thought, but they made him shiver. He thought about them. Right now, right as he was breathing as quietly as he could in the backseat of a streetcar with the divider up blocking their view of the driver and his view of them, he was turning a corner that he wouldn't be able to get back. He took a deep breath as he looked over at Abby – clutching her laptop bag close to her chest. He reached for the bag he had packed, keeping it between his knees as the cars started to leave the underground parking garage. The files Maya had given him safely inside. The envelopes he could only open when the right time came. A chill ran down his spine as he realized that 'that time' might come a whole lot faster than he had imagined when she had handed them to him at the diner.


	20. Chapter 20

The Redeemed

Chapter Twenty

Early Tuesday Morning

Olivia watched the clock in the car hit one in the morning through her eyelids. She had been pretending to sleep for a while, she had started basically as soon as their last conversation had met an untimely demise. 'Where do you think I was going?' Seriously? What kind of comment was that to make about a man she had just let her father shoot maybe two whole months ago. Olivia watched as her mother turned the radio on low. She guessed that being a super spy/terrorist didn't necessarily mean that you didn't know when your kids were fake sleeping. Or maybe she had just decided that it was easier to let her fake it rather then force in a conversation. One would think that after twenty years, and the last few months, they would have plenty to talk about. However, they had both somehow made the collective decision that barring their initial conversation it was best to just let her pretend to sleep. It was miraculous. Well, at least they could agree on something – even if it was silently.

"Livy, sit up," Maya finally said as she turned down a rather wooded little lane, "You can stop trying to fall asleep. There's a bed for you inside."

"How could you let him touch him?" Olivia asked, and Maya looked at her for a full minute.

"You're still talking about Dominic?" Maya registered with aquestion, and Olivia just looked at her blankly – as if questioning what else she could be talking about, "I'll tell you the whole damn story once we get in the house."

She stopped as Olivia looked out the windshield to realize that the lane they had turned onto had actually been a driveway. Maya stopped the car, and the headlights showed Olivia the garage doors, it was too dark for her to properly see the whole house, but she knew that it was big. That it was something similar to the mansion Fitz had built her in Vermont. She took a deep breath as she did as her mother asked and got out of the car. They walked up to the front door casually, then paused. She waited while Maya pulled a key out of her wallet, and Olivia gave her a strange look.

"You were able to hold onto a key all this time without anyone finding it on you?"

"Baby," It came out as almost a scolding as Maya opened the door, and they walked in, "Dominic gave it to me once I was out."

"Right," Olivia said, realizing just how much the last two months, and a loss of a night's sleep had gotten to her.

"And I didn't really have a choice," Maya said, and Olivia glared at her, "I'm talking about Dominic. Your father already had him. He had been dying to shoot him, or have him tortured for years. Since he found out, really. If I had tried to save him, your father would have just turned the gun on you."

"On me?" Olivia said, and Maya gave her a sad look.

"Your father would do anything if it meant he was getting something he wanted," Maya said, taking a deep breath, "You're only worth anything so long as you can be useful to him. Yeah, that includes you, too. He raised you like a bargaining chip. The biggest Mafia in the world's princess."

"He was trying to use me to control Fitz?" Olivia checked, and Maya nodded.

"Among other things."

"So why are you helping me now?" Olivia asked, "What you don't need a flight to China this time?"

"I needed a flight to China, because I had to get away from your father," Maya told her somewhat irritatedly, "I didn't have time to explain everything that happened to you. Never mind the fact that I had just seen daylight for the first time in about twenty years. I was a little frazzled. I'll tell you anything you want, now."

"Why are you doing this?" Olivia asked her, "Why are you helping me."

"Because – whether I was around or not – you're my baby girl," Maya said, and then added on, "And I never want you to grow up to be me. I fell in love with a man that I couldn't have. I fell in love with Dominic, but I couldn't be with him because they would find us if we were together. I married your father out of – convenience, among other things. Does this sound familiar? I see myself in you, Olivia and I want to help. I want you to be happy. Not tortured. I don't want you to wake up one morning and realize the gravity of marrying a monster. I don't want you to marry some jerk just because you're 'safe' as long as you play his game. A man who put you in the hospital, and a man who thinks nothing of hurting you. I'd much rather you be with the man that hurts you because he's not trying to. The man who's going to do everything he can – doesn't care about power. The man who's only ever hurt you because you wouldn't let him leave his wife, or because he was hurt by you. A man who literally couldn't function because he thought you were being mistreated. And yeah, he's got his ego, and he's got his issues but that's normal. Everyone's got something dark, not everyone was a trained assassin who doesn't think twice about throwing women into coffee tables and choking them against the wall. Fitz comes with a – well, as far as you're concerned – normal sort of pain. Anyway, The bottom line is: I don't want you to twenty years down the line have to make the choice between saving the man that you love more than anything in the world and your child. I want you to have both. That's why I reached out to him."

"So what're you planning?"

"Tonight? For you to sleep."

"That's not what I meant."

"Ok," Maya took a deep breath, "Escaping from Eli never is an easy escape. Fitz disappeared tonight as well."

"What?"

"It's giving him the idea that you two somehow managed to run away for a while," Maya said, "He'll figure it out quickly, but he'll know we're in contact. That will piss him off. He doesn't think clearly when he's angry. The First Lady is a clear example of that."

"What?" Olivia asked, and Maya nodded.

"When he had me," She said, "When he picked me up again – he put me into a – chamber – of sorts."

"The Hole."

"I guess," Maya said, taking a deep breath, "Anyway, it was someone close to the top who let me out. They helped me through the entire facility, let me right out the back door."

"Who was it?"

"Tom," Maya said, and Olivia looked at her strangely, "Yes. Like the secret service agent. You're surprised Eli would want someone that close to the president?"

"No, just that it was him," Olivia replied, and Maya nodded.

"Well, it seems like not everyone over at B613 is very happy to be taking orders from him lately," She said, and Olivia nodded, "He filled me in on everything that was going on. I went straight out to Santa Barbara to find your boyfriend. He was a mess, let me tell you. And he wasn't happy to hear you had run off with Jake – but he was willing to help. He still loves you, no matter what. Dominic was the same way – kind of. Anyway – I filled him in on most of the plan. Up until a point."

"Up until a point?" Olivia asked.

"I'm putting you on a plane tomorrow morning," Maya said, "I give Eli til then to find us. I have a feeling he'll be here sooner than I gave him credit for. It's ok though, everything's pretty much set in place. The plane's going to drop you in Vermont. You're to spend one night there, then start driving down to D.C. I understand that you're good at hiding yourself. You make sure you do. You're going to have to wait until it's safe, and then – "

"Until it's safe?" Olivia asked.

"The pilot's a friend of mine," She told her, "Don't worry – he'll take good care of you."

"When will it be safe for me to be in D.C.?"

"You'll know," Maya said, taking a deep breath, handing her a slip of paper, directions to the airfield, "Have Abby contact Huck. Have him hide you until then. For now, you should get some sleep – but maybe call Fitz first."

"Call Fitz?"

"So that he knows I'm still holding up my end," Maya said, "We don't need him getting worried and panicking now. Just make sure that you don't tell him anything that I told you about the plan."

"I thought he was in on it," Olivia replied, and Maya gave an extraordinarily serious expression.

"The next part is imperative that he doesn't know," She said importantly, and Olivia nodded, "You need to tell Abby though. That's important."

"That's important?"

"Along with the next thing that I'm going to tell you," Maya said, "Which is why it's important that Fitz doesn't know…"

Olivia took a deep breath as her mother finally let her leave the living room to go up to 'bed'. Which was apparently the first room on the left at the top of the stairs. She was already pulling the phone her mother had given her out of her pocket as she was pushing the door open. But she froze as soon as she had turned the light on and could the room in its entirety. It was painted purple – lavender. Her favorite color when she was twelve. The bed was a twin, the comforter matching the walls. A desk that had been painted white with lilacs painted on the side. The curtains were large, and decorative. It made it look like the princess' room in a castle, the walls were even complete with posters of her favorite old boy bands, some of them started to peal, most were faded from age.

This was her room. The room that her mother and Dominic had made so that they could take her with them. They had wanted to take her with them, Dominic too. He had built the house, and if he had done that she could assume that he had at least helped her mother set this room up for her. And she had stood in the room with her father when he pointed the gun at his head. When he tied him to a chair. What would it be like to see Teddy all grown up after all those years, and then have him walk out of the room to let Jake shoot her in the head. Ok, so it was a little twisted, but she could see it. She took a deep breath, falling onto the bed, and it moved.

It was a water-bed. She had begged her mother to get her one for almost a full year before she had 'died'.

"Hello?" Fitz answered his phone on the first ring.

"Hi." Olivia tried to mask the fact that she was upset from her voice, but he was obviously going to pick up on it.

"Hi," He said lightly before continuing, "Is everything o"

"Other than the fact that I'm in exile, and now on the run?" She asked, taking a deep breath, she wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell him everything, "I'm fine. Don't worry, we just got to the safe house for the night."

"I just got to Cy's, hunkering down for the next couple of days," Fitz said, "I have Abby with me, thanks for the head's up."

"She's going to be incredibly useful, keep her close," Olivia replied, trying not to let anything slip as she said it, "Promise?"

"Ok."

"Promise me, Fitz."

"I promise," He did so immediately, "I love you, I miss you like hell."

"That is not a one way street," Olivia took a deep breath, "I wish you were here."

"I would be, if you had let me be the one you ran away with," He said bitterly, and she took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, that was stupid. I didn't mean it."

"You did. And it's true," Olivia took a deep breath, no matter how much it hurt, it was the truth, "I'm sorry."

"It's – " Fitz broke off, there was no way in the world he could even lie and say that her running off with Jake was anything like 'fine' or 'ok', "Water under the bridge. My comment was out of line, I was being stupid."

"Your comment was called for," Olivia said, taking a deep breath, and she heard Fitz take a sharp breath.

"It doesn't matter," He said, taking a deep breath, "All that matters is that you're safe."

"Fitz, I told him that I loved you," Olivia said, taking a deep breath – she needed him to understand, "I told him that he couldn't come with me, because I loved you. That I would never love him – I couldn't. He wanted to come anyway."

"Still, he was given the option."

"Well, we all know now it was a set up anyway," Olivia said, taking a deep breath, "To just add on to my idiotic deeds lately. Including running away with the wrong guy, and hurting the right one – the one I love more than anything – in the process."

"That's why it doesn't matter," Fitz said, taking a deep breath, "I've hurt you plenty, I know. I just don't want to talk about this anymore."

"I can let you go for the night.."

"No," He said instantly, "Anything _but_ that."

"Ok," Olivia said, taking a deep breath, "I'm currently sitting in twelve year old me's dream room. Complete with enormous poster of Michael Jackson in the corner. Whitney's here too."

"Ah," Fitz's lighter, happy-ish tone returned, "No posters of any particular members of - congress? – at the time?"

"I don't think so," She said, and she could feel the corners of her mouth start to smile.

"God, it's torture only being able to talk to you on the phone," He said, and Olivia swallowed.

"I know," She said, taking a deep breath, "I love you."

"I know," He said, taking a deep breath, and exhaling into the phone, "Just promise me one thing?"

"What's that?"

"When this is all over," Fitz paused for a moment, and she heard him swallow like he was nervous, "Promise me you won't run away from me again. Promise me that you're not going to panic, or freak out, or decide you're going to do something stupid and noble ever again. Because I love you more than all the Jake shit, and the Edison shit, but I can even love you through the hating me and running away – I just don't know much more of it I can take. Please, promise me this is it. I can't deal with this again. I can't watch you walk away from me again."

Olivia felt tears starting to fall down her cheeks, knowing what was going to happen.

"I promise once we're together again," She took a rattling breath, "I'm done. You are it, I don't want anyone else. And I certainly do not ever want to be without you again. I'm not scared, and I'm not going anywhere. Fitz. I am not going to go anywhere."

"Good," He whispered through the phone, and she took a breath.

"I love you – I should try and get some rest."

"I love you, Livy."

"Good night," She breathed as she hung up the phone, and put it down on the nightstand.

The next morning Olivia woke up to her phone ringing, and by the time she got it – her mother had hung up. She took a breath, and then looked out the window. There was another car in the driveway, a dark four door sedan and the blood in her veins ran cold as she ran towards the hallway. As soon as she stepped foot outside of her door – she could hear him down in the kitchen. She stopped at the top of the stairs, out of sight of everyone.

"Where is she, Maya?" She heard her father's voice – he wasn't worried about being heard.

"She's gone," She heard her mother reply in a yell.

"I know you have her here," Eli yelled, and Olivia heard something in his voice that she hadn't heard since she was a child.

It paralyzed her with fear, and she let it take over.

"I will search this whole damn house if I need to," He said, "I will tear down the walls."

"God knows you've been dying to do that for longer than just now," Maya said, and it clicked with Olivia that she was stalling, but she couldn't make her legs move, "Just like you were iching to have an excuse to get Dominic. So it wouldn't automatically mean that you were jealous. That somewhere in there you are still human, with feelings."

"Enough." Eli shouted, and she heard something hard and metal hitting something something softer – like her mother's head, "Tell me where she is." u

"You can tear the whole house apart," Maya was taunting him now, "You're not going to find her. You might want to check the backyard though…"

"What?"

"I killed her Eli," Maya said, and Olivia's heart started to race, her systems starting to recover from the initial shock, "I buried her in the backyard. Did you think that I would have done anything less? Anything less than make you pay? Honestly, what would you done in my shoes? Didn't you always say that we were two of the – "

Same. Olivia finished her sentence as a gun fired. She heard a thud of what she knew to be her mother's body hitting the floor before she started backing up towards the open bathroom door, and she could hear her father coming towards the stairs.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Hello lovely readers, here's the other half of Mellie's chapter…sorry it took so long, her's always do…

The Redeemed

Chapter Twenty-One

Monday Morning.

Mellie passed out probably around four or so in the morning. At least that was what it felt like, but Quinn kept telling her that it was the drugs still in her system. Quinn said a lot of things though. The funny part was under any other circumstances she thought that they might be friends. Quinn - despite her own whining attitude - seemed to share her contempt for Olivia. Except coming from Quinn it sounded like the ramblings of an obnoxious brat. Like an ungrateful little bitch. Olivia had stuck her neck out to save Quinn a few times, hadn't she? A few times, if Mellie remembered the headlines right. She rolled over in her cot – no idea what time it was at this point – and now she understood why Quinn had made the comment about time not really mattering, she understood that now.

"Wake up!" She heard someone bark outside of her cell and then a bright light filled the room, she could barely see from the sharp change in light.

It didn't take her long to realize that she was no longer in the cell that she had fallen asleep in. This one was bright, white, and disorientating. She would have said it was like an operating room, if it wasn't for the fact that there was nothing in it, at all. She had been sleeping on the ground of the room, and Eli Pope was standing over her – in a not any more particularly menacing way than he usually commanded. He took a deep breath and she narrowed her gaze as Tom walked up next to him. He gave her a look that was almost sympathetic, but then covered it completely with a much more sullen, and moderately removed look.

"Where the fucking hell am I?"

"One would think that you would know better than asking a question like that," Eli said, his teeth meshing weirdly with each other, "You're lucky – or should I say that I am lucky – that we decided not to kill you right away. I guess we can both thank Tom here for that. When he first suggested it, I questioned his loyalty. However, based on current events, it might be highly useful."

"Recent events?" Mellie asked and Eli cleared his throat.

"My daughter and your husband have gone missing."

"They have?"

She tried to remain quiet about it, like she was neutral about it – because that seemed like the safest option. Honestly, it was only a matter of time before they found each other. She took a deep breath – why was she bothering to censor her responses.

"Well it was only a matter of time," She rolled her eyes, standing up – but then going back down when Tom gave her a little look, so she sat back down, "Welcome to the club. They'll be gone twenty-four hours, forty-eight at the most."

"I need to find them," Eli said, not giving her comment the attention it really deserved, "And I have a reason to believe that you know where they are. Or, perhaps where they may be."

She thought for a second about asking what was in it for her, but she knew better than that. It was a waste of time, because there was nothing there that was going to be there for her. Just like her life, there really was no out, was there? It was never about her. That's what her life was, right? But she couldn't really play the victim. There was no point, she had gotten herself into this mess, hadn't she? She had married Fitz even though she knew he didn't love her – that he might not ever love her. He didn't. She knew that he was in love with Olivia, but she pretended she didn't. She pretended that she was more important to him still, even though she knew he wasn't. She had blamed him for all of it. He wasn't as strong as she was – but she had known that from the start.

"How am I supposed to know where they are?"

"I can't think of anyone else who might know better," Eli said, and Mellie just looked at him, "We've checked her apartment in Washington, the houses in Santa Barbara, the safe houses, and the house in Aspen. Is there anywhere else that we should be looking."

Mellie furrowed her brow, and looked over at Tom, who looked away. He meant like the huge-ass mansion that Fitz had built Olivia with – as much as possible – his own two hands. But Tom knew all about that – and somehow Eli didn't? She looked back at Eli, and then back at Tom. Was it a trick? Did he know about the huge love-nest that Fitz had built her? The one that could make anyone sick enough to barf over anything and everything they ever cared about. The storybook ending that had sent her and anyone else who knew about it – complete with orchards – running for the nearest toilet? Tom gave her a weird sort of look, like it wasn't at all a trick. No one was joking. Eli didn't know about the house in Vermont, and she wasn't about to be the one to make whatever he wanted easier for him.

"No, there's nowhere else that I know of that they could be."

"Are you sure?" Eli asked her, his voice not at all convinced, "If you can help, maybe we can make your stay a little less – "

"I told you, I don't know where they are," Mellie said angrily, "And I might have a better idea if I wasn't locked up in here with you. So, no I don't know where they are. I don't even know what time it is, or day it is."

"It's Monday morning," Eli said, checking his watch, "Two AM. Now, I have a flight to catch, Tom. Madame First Lady."

She couldn't be sure, but for some reason she thought she heard a slight chuckle in his voice as he addressed her – his back already to her. He walked out of the room and the door slammed behind him as Mellie looked over at Tom, who was headed towards her.

"Tom, what're you doing?" Mellie asked him as he knelt down next to her.

"You did good," He assured her, and then took her in his arms.

"Tom, I demand to be let go," Mellie said, and when he didn't, "What're you doing?"

His arm was across her neck, his hand on her head.

"I'm sorry, I wish I didn't have to…"

She screamed, and then there was nothing.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Well, this took way too long. Enjoy the chapter, loves. :)

The Redeemed

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tuesday Evening.

Cyrus took a deep breath as he slipped his phone into his pocket. He was fairly certain he knew what this meant - the anonymous tip that he had just gotten via text message to his phone. He took a deep breath, at least it wasn't summoning him all that far away or a place he couldn't justify being. He took a deep breath as he went upstairs in his house, where Fitz had been pacing in circles all day. Where Abby had been sitting watching him pace, like they thought today was specifically important or something. He knew that Fitz had spoken with Olivia the night before, so he had been ready for at least a slightly upbeat Fitz, but apparently that wasn't the case. He walked into the attic where they had been hiding and looked from Abby to Fitz.

"I have to head back to work," Cyrus said as he tried to look away from Fitz, who had paused to look at him.

"Back to work?"

"Yeah, I just forgot a few things," Cyrus said, still kilO looking at Abby, looking for her to catch the drift.

"Cy, what's going on? Why won't you look at me?"

"Sir," Cyrus forced himself to look over at him, to look him in the eye, and Abby looked at the ground.

"Cy."

"I don't know what it is yet, sir."

"Cy."

"I'll be right back, sir," Cyrus said as he looked down at the attic floor.

"Mellie?"

"I do not know yet, sir," Cyrus said, and Fitz nodded, "I'll give Abby a call if you need to be there, sir."

"Ok," Fitz said it like his entire throat had been removed via his mouth - like he could barely breathe never mind speak.

Cyrus nodded slightly, then left the room, heading down both flights of stairs before heading out onto the street. He looked around his shoulder as he headed down the road to where his car was parked, waiting for him. His secret service agent met him at the end of the street. He took a deep breath, and then climbed into the car with him and told him to drive him right over to the White House. He wasn't entirely sure that he was ready for what was going to happen next. He didn't know that he was ready for this – because usually when this sort of thing was happening it was Olivia that was handling it. Or he sent Charlie to deal with it, but Charlie was dead. And, if any of his nerves were right – so was someone else.

"Is everything alright, sir?" His agent asked, and Cyrus took a deep breath.

Cyrus gave him a little nod, but didn't really say anything as he pulled away from the curb, and headed down towards Pennsylvania avenue. He had to act as if nothing was wrong. Because, if he was going to find a body, it should seem as if he stumbled on it, so that no one can say that he might have had something to do with it. Casual, if he could act as casual as possible then maybe everything would be ok, at least for a little while. There was no way to express his now outright feelings that going to war with Eli Pope had been an awful idea. Though, to be fair, what more could he possibly take?

"Good evening, Lauren," Cyrus said as he walked into the small lobby between his and Fitz's office.

"Good evening, Mr. Beene," She said, a slightly bewildered expression on her face, "What did – "

"Nothing, Lauren," Cyrus told her with a small smile, "My doctor tells me that walking is good for me. Good for my heart. But since the carjacking, and the everything else that's been going on – I prefer to do it here. I just left my phone in my room, so that I can listen to my music while I walk around the grounds."

"Have a good night, Sir."

"Yeah," He replied, putting his head down as he walked into his office

He rummaged around a little in his office, making it seem like he was looking for his phone. He moved stuff around on his desk until he just took his phone out of his pocket, and then carried it out of the room showing it to Lauren on the way out. Pausing just outside the door, he counted to ten, letting everything hit him. Letting himself think about the worst possible situation that he could be walking into. Thinking about all of it before he actually started walking down the hall, and out towards the elevator – to the end of the hall. He was counting his steps. Why the hell was he counting his steps?

"Cy," Andrew came around the corner, "What're you doing here?"

"I just – " Cyrus froze, this was probably his worst case scenario come to light, "I was about to go for a walk. I forgot something up in my office, and now I'm headed out."

"Alright," Andrew said with a solemn little nod, "As you were, of course."

Cyrus nodded and walked by him out the main back door. He flicked the flashlight App on his phone on, knowing full well that he probably didn't really want to see whatever Eli had just put into his path for him to see. He looked back up at the lit-up White House and sighed. That was why they had gotten into this whole mess in the first place. The beauty of it: the country that could be ruled from a big White House, a fairytale where people were free to pursue their own happiness. The place where the people could rule themselves – the unicorn. They should have known – they did know that it didn't exist. But none of them had even dreamed that the unicorn was so incredibly out of the realm of what was reality. Well, maybe Olivia had known, in some dark recess of her mind, and maybe she had buried it, tried to forget the nightmare. But Freddy always came back for them in the end. THe nightmare had shown up in his office when he had run up to it after the inaguaration ball. Striking just when he thought he was –

He froze as he processed what he thought he ight have seen out of the corner of his eye. Ghost white, and shining in the edge of the beam from his phone. He could see the contrast with the edge of her hairline. He now knew what he was going to see, it was just a matter of preparing himself to see it. Mellie was dead. Mellie Grant was dead. That evil, magnificent, genius of a little manipulative bitch. He stared up at the stars, took a very deep breath, then cast his light over her body. He almost didn't even have to look down, he did, but it took a minute. There she was. Pale, dead at least a few hours, enough for her to look – dead. Her neck was at a disturbing, mangled angle. That was probably how they had done it. How he had done it. No one at B613 cared about the First Lady, the First Family, or anything to do with what was going on. Only one person there did – unfortunately for Mellie, that one person had all the power.

"Cyrus Beene."

He recognized the voice as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water down the back of his shirt. Of course.

"Rowan," He directed his flashlight up enough so that he could see him standing a few feet behind Mellie's body.

"I guess she never really adjusted to the loss of her son," Rowan replied, "I have a feeling she had it planned from the moment she left the building."

"Yeah, because people generally commit suicide by breaking their own necks," Cyrus said, and Rowan suddenly looked much more serious.

"Once we're done talking you can call over the Secret Service," Rowan told him, and Cyrus nodded, "They will call for a doctor, who will be one of our guys. So will the mortician. The White House's story of a poor, mentally unstable First Lady will stand."

"Ok," Cyrus said, not really seeing a point in arguing.

"You seem agreeable this evening," It reached his ears at a taunt, he didn't even have enough energy to respond, "It's over, Cyrus."

"What do you mean 'it's over?'" Cyrus looked up at him.

"Olivia's dead," Rowan's voice cracked a little bit and Cyrus raised an eyebrow: He had feelings? The big bad monster in the closet, the thing under the bed – it cared? Of course he didn't, "Her mother killed her – "

"You expect me to believe that?" Cyrus asked, not even thinking to consider it, "That her mother killed her? How many times are we going to blame the grandmother when the wolf is standing right in front of me?"

"Fine," Rowan barked, then took a deep breath, "I killed them. I killed them both. Her mother was trying to poison her mind, and Olivia – it doesn't matter what happened, the result is still the same – Olivia is dead. Deader than the body in front of you – I assure you."

"How do I know – "

"SHE WAS MY CHILD!" Rowan lost his temper, then took a breath, "I don't need to explain myself, but I could tell you i address for the safe house they were staying at just outside London. It's your job to explain things. Start thinking how you're going to explain to the President that I took his Queen, and his Knight. And that if he wishes, I will stop before I get to the King, and his pawns."

Cyrus caught himself staring at Mellie's body on the ground, and then looked up again to find him gone.

"Help!" Cyrus called across the grounds, "Oh My God – I've found. HELP ME GODDAMN IT!"

"Cyrus?" The last voice he wanted to hear came running over, followed by three or four secret service agents running up from behind him.

Cyrus pointed the light as far away from Mellie as possible and saw Andrew.

"Andrew…"

"It's the First Lady," One Agent called, and Andrew's eyes expanded, Cyrus could imagine his heart had stopped.

"Cyrus – "

"Andrew, you want to back away," Cyrus told him, taking a step towards him.

"No."

"Andrew."

"No!"

"She's down," Another agent called, and Cyrus looked behind himself where the agents were taking her pulse.

Andrew made to move past Cyrus and he blocked him as he got one of the agents who was rushing over to restrain him. The gravity of everything that had just happened – what he had seen and what he had been told – it sank in. He could feel tears starting to sting the back of his eyes, and opted to go with the agent and Andrew back into the building. He took a breath, and allowed himself to be taken back to his office, where he could wait to talk to an agent. He told the agent that came in that he was out walking when he found her body. That he didn't know anything else, and he knew that his story would pass – without any problems. That's what happened in dreams – nightmares – things that didn't really make logical sense just sort of happened.

He had to call Fitz.

He didn't want to.

Andrew was a mess, and anyone with eyes knew that what he had with Mellie was puppy love. Compared to what he knew was true for Fitz and Olivia – but it didn't matter. If Olivia really was dead, and he was fairly convinced – Fitz finding out any other way than from him just wouldn't be ok. It wouldn't be ok with him, and there was no way that Fitz was going to recover from it anyway, but he thought maybe it would be better if he told him personally. He couldn't forget that there was a threat, which was more of a dare than anything else, attached to Rowan's message. At least that was how Fitz was going to take it. There was no way that he was going to sit in the Oval Office and pretend to twiddle his thumbs like a good little boy once he found out that Olivia had been murdered. He felt tears sting the back of his eyes again as he even thought about the words, and he swallowed them back. He had to be calm. He had to be –

"Fitz," Cyrus said as Fitz picked up his own house line.

"Cy?" Fitz already sounded weary, no doubt the news was reporting everything and anything that might explain an ambulance leaving the White House.

"I think it's time you came back to the White House."

Fitz very kindly let him leave it at that, and he knew that he only had a few minutes to think about how he was going to tell Fitz. He would open with Mellie. It was only fitting, because it was the solid one. They had her body, but he had a feeling that he would never even get a chance to get Olivia's from Rowan. From what he understood, they had taken Andrew to the hospital to be medicated, because he was causing a ruckus. He had a feeling that Fitz would absolutely not be following suit. If anything at all, he would be leaving the White House with a shot gun over his shoulder, return a feeling slightly better for about a minute – then maybe allow himself a tranquilizer. Cyrus just sat there, waiting for him to get there, and rubbing his eyes to keep from crying. Desperately trying to figure out just how he was going to tell Fitz what had happened.

"Cyrus," Fitz said as he walked in, and Cy took a deep breath.

Every minute that he could delay telling him, he wouldn't know. His world would keep turning.

"Sit down," Cyrus told him, and Fitz did as he was told.

"Cy."

"Fitz, Mellie's body was recovered from the grounds about twenty minutes ago," Cyrus said, and Fitz nodded – he had known that one was coming, "Her body's been brought to the morgue, they're going to say it was a suicide."

"Well, I kind of handed them that one."

"You did, sir," Cyrus said.

"How's Andrew?"

"They brought him to the hospital to be sedated."

"But that's not all you have to tell me," Fitz said, "We've known that this was coming for days. Cy – have you been crying?"

"What I didn't tell anyone else was that Rowan was waiting with her," Cyrus said, and Fitz's ears perked up, "He said she was a warning to you. That you should take the cue to shut up and sit down – basically."

"Ok. I'm not going to do that."

"And there was one other thing…"

"What?" Fitz said, and Cyrus paused.

For a few more seconds, his world was still happily orbiting Olivia.

"Fitz – Olivia's…" Cyrus took a deep breath, "She's gone, too. Rowan killed her, and her mother at the house they were at in London."

"He's lying," Fitz croaked, as his whole body seemed to sink into the chair he was sitting in.

There was an overwhelming sadness that came over his face, and Cyrus didn't say anything. He didn't want to, he wanted Fitz to be right. He wanted Rowan to be lying and Olivia to walk through the door behind where Fitz was sitting to comfort him. To comfort Fitz as he slowly did the math himself. Cyrus wouldn't have told him if he didn't know in his gut was true.

"What does your gut tell you?" Cyrus asked him, seriously – not mocking, never mocking, "We both know the gut is the most important part of a person. It tells you who they are, and it tells you more about yourself and your situation than often times you're willing to admit."

It was too much. He wished once more that he could be more of an emotional support to his friend – to his best friend – but he just couldn't handle it. He could see Fitz starting to fall apart, and he got up from his desk. He hadn't been entirely sure that he could move, but he managed it as he got up – trying not to look at Fitz as he started towards the door.

"I'll give you a little privacy," Cyrus said as he crossed the room, "I'll be in the Oval once you've taken a minute…"

"One Minute," Fitz murmured under his breath as he just simply fell apart.

Cyrus could hear him sobbing as he walked out into the hallway, where Lauren was.

"Sir?"

"The First Lady was found dead on the grounds," Cyrus told her, and she nodded.

"But sir," Lauren knew more than anyone else, she always did – she just kept it to herself.

"And Olivia Pope was just reported dead."

"Oh my God," Lauren said as the door behind her burst open again, and Fitz was standing there, his face stained and his whole stature barely keeping itself up.

"Lauren. Cyrus," He barked and Lauren looked a little frightened – though, not of Fitz, "I want to do a press conference."

"Sir!" They both tried to dissuade him at the same time.

"Sir, really – no one expects – "

"Fitz, you're upset there's no reason to go out there right now and bumble through – "

"Abby," Fitz spotted her before Cy or Lauren, "Olivia – "

They all looked over as Abby nodded solemnly.

"I haven't heard from her since yesterday morning," She said, "And if – "

"Rowan's story's checking out."

"Jake," Fitz said, "Someone get in contact with Jake Ballard."

"Sir…"

"I know, Cy," Fitz said, taking a shaky breath, "I just need to know for certain. No questions."

"I can try to get ahold of him," Abby volunteered, and Fitz nodded as she excused herself into the hallway, "I've been trying her burner phone all night, nothing."

"In the meantime, I want a press conference. In twenty minutes."

"Sir," Cyrus tried to calm him.

"Sir," Lauren tried, "Let me just get you a glass of water – "

"I DON'T WANT A GODDAMNED GLASS OF WATER, I WANT – "

He paused.

"Livy," He breathed as he fell into Lauren's chair.

"Sir, if you'd just come with me into the Oval…"

"I can't go in there, Cy."

"Lauren," Cyrus said, "Can you run down to the kitchen and get us all some tea?"

"Absolutely," Lauren had been around them long enough to know when she was being asked to make herself scarce.

"Fitz," Cyrus said, trying his best to sound consoling, but not really sure that he sounded like anything at all, "Don't you think it would be better to let the dust settle before you address the public?"

"Cy," Fitz sounded even angrier than he had before, "I want Karen and Teddy on the next plane back here, with no news access. And then I want an audience in the press room. Immediately."

He got the feeling that there wasn't going to be much talking to Fitz, so he went over and sat on the bench. He didn't blame him. No one could say anything to him the day that James died, either. He took a deep breath, and looked up at the ceiling. It didn't take too long before Abby came back in, and simply shook her head sadly. He wasn't sure if she couldn't get ahold of Jake, or if he had confirmed her death himself. Either way, it wasn't good and Cyrus really wasn't curious enough to ask for the answer. She was gone, and that was all there was. Except, through a series of events that he truly tried to and wished more than anything else that he could stop – he was sitting in the pressroom, waiting for the reporters to die down and for Fitz to come out.

"Good evening, and –" Fitz's voice cracked, and Cyrus perked up a little bit in his chair just off to the right, "Well, let's just cut to the chase, shall we? It's late and I – well, you'll understand in a minute. This evening at about ten thirty my wife – the First Lady of the United States, Mellie Grant, was found dead near the Rose Garden. Her body was recovered, and it looks so far as if there was no foul play."

The press room was silent. Not even the lowest of them even dared to raise a question.

"Mellie and I had a far from perfect marriage, but it still fills me with sadness to know that she is gone," Fitz swallowed, "Further details about services and viewing hours for the country to say goodbye will be coming out in the morning."

"How are the kids?" One reporter asked and Fitz took a deep breath.

"They're flying up with their grandparents as we speak," Fitz said, taking a deep breath, "And now, I have a confession to make, and before I start I just ask that you all wait until I'm finished before you pipe in with any questions. This is a truth about myself and my life that I wished to share with the American People for a long time, but in the interest of protecting certain people that were important to me, I refrained. The First Lady and I were never a fairytale. Up until about six years ago, I didn't even think that romantic love – I didn't think that it existed. I thought that anyone who believed in it was – until a woman came into my life who changed the game. Now, if you guys are doing the math – I was running for president. It wasn't exactly the most opportune moment to fall so completely in love for the first time – I was married, and running for president and she – Olivia Pope came into my world and I was brought to my knees. I didn't really want to be president anymore, it was more important that I was with her. Which I guess I never properly explained to her – "

His voice cracked, and Cyrus stood up.

"Olivia Pope – "

"Sir," Cyrus started walking towards him.

"No," Fitz shook his head, and Cyrus took a deep breath, "I need to say it. I need to tell everyone the truth. I need to – because she deserves – Olivia Pope – the only woman that I truly ever – I lost her. It's my fault."

"Sir," Cyrus slowly walked towards him, trying to take the microphone as Fitz started to disintegrate.

"I have to be the one to say it," Fitz whispered and Cyrus nodded, positioning the mic for him.

"Olivia was officially confirmed dead this evening at eleven."

Cyrus put the mic back on the stand, and wrapped his arm around Fitz.

"It's going to be ok," He said as he tried to make himself a crutch, which Fitz had refused to bring out with him.

"No. It's not."


End file.
